So, @emoryuniversity.bsky.social, your move.

I also think he may have a mental illness going on. The email I just read is the most floridly racist thing I've seen since the last time I opened my spam folder.

I've got A LOT of other things going on that are more important. But I know if I write about this guy it will get read. Punching down?

He's been kicked off of campus because of an email deemed threatening enough to send warnings to his classmates. There's an EO investigation, which I know about because he's posting about it. Conduct investigation as well, because duh.

I smell an outrage influencer blooming. I see nascent merch.

A journalistic dilemma. A 1L law student at Emory appears to have lost his fucking mind. Asian, espousing a years-long ideology of "Transracialism" which apparently gives him an N-word pass in emails to staff and instructors. Wants to defend people accused of rape. Fantasizes about sexual assault.

Unrelated: I think about Jerry Reed fairly often. Born into poverty in Atlanta - a Grady baby - who hit it big without turning into a jackass. This city does not honor Reed's legacy appropriately.

A criminal case would kill the NDA. And though kidnapping certainly violates the law, I'd bet money that there's nothing explicit in the contract that says "holding a gun to my head demanding you sign a release" *violates the contract*. Suddenly, everyone can see the contract terms.

We should look.

What if something like that is in the contract, and Pooh Shiesty - bound by nondisclosure agreements - could not discuss it with others and couldn't effectively challenge it in court? How would you get that out into the light of the public?

How about making it evidence in a criminal trial?

"Moral hazard" describes when one party takes on excessive risk because they are insulated from the consequences, typically because another party bears the cost. Gucci Mane taking life insurance on an artist that pays 1000 to 1 against a risk he knows might be closer to 20 to 1 would be one example.

I am in no way accusing Gucci Mane of something like setting up his proteges to be killed or to commit crimes. But his track record for picking "winners" in this regard would make a criminologist blush. Violence prevention workers would do well to adopt his methodology for its accuracy.

A breathtaking percentage of Gucci's signees are dead or in jail.

I have suspected that Gucci Mane has had some kind of contractual protection - key man insurance, likely - for when his artists got killed or jailed. I also think he's got hardcore NDAs preventing those artists from discussing it.

Lawyers, help me.

As dumb as we may think rappers are, I don't believe Pooh Shiesty was stupid enough to think he could hold a gun to Gucci Mane's head and get a legally-valid signature to end his recording contract.

Instead I think the stunt was to draw legal and media attention to that contract.

The president is planning to give himself $10 billion in taxpayer money from the IRS, straight up.

Michael Walzer is still alive - he's 91 - and the suggestion that the Iran war meets jus ad bellum standards might kill him. Keep him away from the TV and computers.

I think I gave a decent answer to that one, actually.

I would find it gratifying if people stopped thinking of the biggest asshole they ever worked for as the type of person who should be elected to public office.

I beat the computer so thoroughly that there's no challenge. The computer has a perfect vocabulary and no sense of defense. It leaves double and triple word scores open, and undervalues the placement of words starting or ending with v or c. It will leave a u open next to a triple letter square.

Are any of you are playing the Times new Scrabble variant, Crossplay? I am encountering a phenomenon where every opponent challenging me starts with a 7-letter bingo. I think they're gaming it: issuing challenges and then no-penalty quitting any match that doesn't start with a 7-point word.

The problem is that the music industry has placed a premium on "authenticity" in this regard. Gucci Mane in particular has actively sought crashouts to sign, straight from the prison parking lot.

His artists have a remarkable (and suspicious) track record of re-offending, getting shot or dying.

A minstrel show, frankly. Black people paid to look like comically immoral idiots.

Your regular reminder that the activities of gangster rappers reflect "Black culture" about as much as Fred Phelps represents Christianity or whoever the undocumented killer of the week represents immigrants.

Judging a group by its most deviant members is an excellent working definition of bigotry.

What the fuck

The other thing is that the contents of this video ... well, it could be produced easily enough by any American critical of their government today. It's a fair argument. Describing Donald Trump as a pedophile would probably survive a libel suit as protected speech (and wow, that's where we are now).

I thought about that. Sincerely. But I'm a journalist, and we should be aware of how our adversaries communicate, particularly if they are communicating effectively. This message isn't just for Americans. NATO allies are seeing this, and they're reacting to it. We should understand that clearly.

Iran Releases Another LEGO Animation Mocking Trump as Information War Continues | APT YouTube video by APT

I am simultaneously amused and disturbed by how effective Iranian propaganda is.

Offset is a rapper. The motherfucker who allegedly shot him, Lil TJay is, alas, also a rapper.

The dude down the block who got some studio time once in 2018 is not a rapper. He is unemployed.

New media rule.

If someone does not have a recording contract, or has not had enough views on YouTube or downloads from Apple Music or the like to make a living from music, they are not a rapper. They're a dude with a street name who is fronting so that their parents can pretend they have a job.

Russia would probably nuke Ukraine. It is unclear if NATO would retaliate, but I would expect it.

Pakistan might consider nuking Israel on general principles. Israel, which is an undeclared nuclear power, would be expected to retaliate.

We would instantly be at war with every civilized country on Earth, which would seek to disarm and defang the United States in their own defense.

We would open ourselves to nuclear retaliation, which while equally immoral would become much more politically justifiable.

A nuclear strike on Iran would destroy the United States.

With the exception - maybe - of Israel and a few quisling dictatorships, it would cause the entire world to turn against us in every possible way. Every military alliance would break. Allies would eject American presence. We would face ruin.