I'm just Shawn Thompson @ycleptshawn@democracy.town

As of now, Republican state legislatures across the country have filed and are passing legislation that makes it harder for people to vote. It’s already too difficult to most people vote, but they’re doing everything they can to put up even more roadblocks for people, not to ensure safe voting, but to keep anyone from voting against Republicans.

We must pass H.R. 1 through the U.S. Senate.

H.R. 1 will create automatic voter registration across the country, expand early voting and enhance absentee voting, simplify voting by mail, reduce long lines and wait times for voters, and modernize America’s voting system.(There’s a lot more – read what’s in the bill here: https://sarbanes.house.gov/issues/hr-1-the-for-the-people-act)

Contact your Senator on this and demand they vote yes. 202-224-3121. It is no exaggeration to say our entire democracy is at stake. #HR1 #ForThePeopleAct #CallToAction 💻 ☎️

Senate confirms Merrick Garland as Biden's attorney general
https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0YrzeOEt?share_id=eyJ1c2VyaWQiOjEzMzYxMzQyMCwiZG9jX2lkIjoiMFlyemVPRXQiLCJ0aW1lc3RhbXAiOjE2MTU0MDY1NTYzMTB9&share_destination_id=MTMzNjEzNDIwLTE2MTU0MDY1NjA0Njk=&s=a99&pd=092cxA4x&hl=en_US

Reminder for #Louisiana voters:

If you live in Louisiana's 2nd district, early voting is going on now through March 13th for a special election you have on March 20th to fill a U.S. House seat.

All elections matter! Make sure you vote if this election is yours. #SpecialElections #Vote
Early voting begins for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District –
https://news.ballotpedia.org/2021/03/05/early-voting-begins-for-louisianas-2nd-congressional-district/

Hey, fedi! I’m gonna hold a 10-minute talk at work about website bloat. How do *you* measure bloat? Is it the number of kB loaded? The speed of rendering? The number of calls made? The amount of JS loaded/used? The image:text ratio? Something else?

I’ve looked at webbloatscore.com as a starting point, and the oldie but goldie Motherfucking Website. Any other fun or interesting resources you’d like to point me to?

Good morning Party People, today is my 33rd birthday, so as is custom around these parts, CAN I GET SOME GODDAMN BOOSTS?!?

it is a show that is a product of its time so yknow, 70s morals shine through, but honestly i still really love columbo

here's some reasons why you may also enjoy it

1. a fun inversion of the mystery formula. you see the crime at the start and you know exactly who did it and how. the excitement is not "whodunnit", but "howcatch'em".
2. columbo is extremely working class, and is openly not the coolest and greatest guy. he is eccentric, and an absolute mess in many respects.
3. and this is how he catches nearly every murderer. he gets them to write him off as a stupid bumbling fool who's too low-class to understand their cleverness. and then oh shit! he's understood all along!!!
4. the murderers are often very rich and lofty to boot, so there's the delightful dynamic of class and wealth being brought into that too. columbo is an underdog who judo-throws people above his station into taking the consequences for crimes they thought their privilege would insulate them from. this is great. this is honestly one of my favourite tropes!!
5. it means the little morality play that crime shows end up being are turned on their head as well. often it rankles the senses because the usual narrative is "the detective is an agent of social order and punishes those who did wrong, which can often line up with an axis of oppression". columbo is stories going the other way. it is the detective not as agent of oppression of society, but detective as agent of true justice where somebody can't buy their way out of a problem due to their massive privilege.
6. columbo isn't a jackass. i just like this a lot. so often you have the quirky detective being a jackass, you know? columbo is not. he's outwardly friendly. and when the murderer is sympathetic, he sympathizes with them! heck, some of the stories even end with the murderers happy about being caught because what they wanted the most is somebody to sympathize with them, and columbo does that. he's never cruel to people he's questioning, and is happy to listen to all witnesses equally, even (especially!) those witnesses that come from marginalized groups, too. and a lot of the time, the thing that makes the privilege murderer snap? IS this kindness!!!
7. the guest stars are just an absolute all-star parade of celebs of the day that you still probably know and that will still blow your mind that they show up there. every episode - really more like a tv movie - has a guest star and there are really big names in there! Leonard Nimoy for example! you want to see Leslie Nielsen being deadly serious instead of in the comedy roles you might know him from? columbo's got you! you want to have your mind slightly blown because Dick van Dyke is here playing someone who is a genuinely cruel person and a bit of a monster and wait you knew him until now as the funny chimneysweep in Merry Poppins and the fun guy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? columbo's got you!!! you get to see actors you probably know in wildly different roles, really loving playing that different role and flexing their acting muscles! and i think that's pretty neat
8. he's got a pretty cute dog too (i just enjoy how utterly gormless said dog appears in this screenshot)

How will we know it's really Daft Punk quitting? 🤔

haven't honestly laughed at an xkcd in a while https://xkcd.com/2425/

**'At least you're not a cat!' Congress video goes wrong**

"A US congressman made an unusual appearance when struggling with his video conferencing technology."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56039699

#news #bot

Also, don't forget to do a little #introductions post and feel free to make use of #️⃣ hashtags when searching for interesting people or things that interest you. 😺