stephen! @makingarecord@friend.camp

Hi! I'm Stephen. I have over a decade of experience in criminal justice, civil legal aid, government service delivery, and the role of data/technology in all of that. I've done litigation, research, tech projects, and organizing. Always trying to get better at all of it.

I also sometimes make music, go on hikes, go birdwatching, and hang out with my cat. I think that's basically it! #introductions #intro

Just saw something about people using Instagram "close friends" stories to invite people to events, and it made my anxiety spike, so I thought I would say publicly: if anyone wants me to attend something, they have to actually directly tell me so (DM me somewhere, email me, text me, tag me, whatever). Do not just hope I will see a random thing posted somewhere.

This is not me saying "Republicans Bad," it's me saying that there's clearly some nuance to the mythological idea of California as a "liberalizing" force in national politics (and also the commonly-held Liberal idea of Ohio as "backwards" or "dysfunctional")

I'm realizing this because that means California and Ohio sent the same number of Republicans to this Juneteenth vote, and 0 from Ohio voted against it, but 2 from California voted against it.

I just realized that there are as many Republican House representatives from California as there are from Ohio (11 each)

Still hooked on the Ukraine Eurovision entry, which now that I pay attention to the video and lyrics is possibly a sort of post-COVID / post-Chernobyl (?) hygge-Mad-Max EDM folk festival anthem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7-dxzp6Jvs

I posted more about this on Twitter, but I was raised in an Orthodox Jewish community, where they made me feel stupid and unwelcome in my own community whenever I even hinted that I thought Israel might be the bad guys. This made it nearly impossible to even think my opinions through, let alone TALK about them. So as a result, I've been angry and ashamed at the Israeli occupation of Palestine longer than I have felt able to talk about it.

Raise your hand if you've ever been called antisemitic by members of your own family because of things you said about Israel and Palestine? 🙋🏻‍♂️

Confused that when I clicked on the article "Everything You NEED to Know about Demi Lovato's Fro-Yo Snafu" and it wasn't just a blank page.

The most useful meme on the entire internet

I have received permission to invite non-Capital-District attendees to our upcoming panel discussion on reparations. The panel is generally local activists and researchers, but could be interesting even for non-local folks. Next Tuesday, April 13, 6pm. Details on the Facebook event! Let me know if you have questions! https://www.facebook.com/events/440907757208601

"The effort to ~manifest~ and ~normalize~ across Instagram specifically ranges from bot-like nonsense splashed over gorgeous imagery to clinical-grade psychological advice with entry-level graphic design. Anyone can contribute to rebuilding global mental health with a stock image of the galaxy and a quote ripped from goodreads.com."

The Dirt is one of my newer newsletter subscriptions, and it is proving to be consistently my favorite each week. Here is today's, on toxic positivity affirmation shitposting. https://dirt.substack.com/p/dirt-affirmation-memes-for-millennial

I don't know if any of y'all follow Andrew Huang, but he's now doing a thing where he's gone to space (?) and is living on a spaceship (??) to hunt down time crystals (???) but otherwise still just doing music production reviews and tutorials. It's great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlgkSrFq6hk