Joé McKen
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joemcken.net
Joé McKen
@joemcken.net
1.3K followers 95 following 7.4K posts
Personal account · Freelance composer in Québec, Canada · Progressive godless civil-libertarian · He/him · Seize the day, but not today, I’m tired · Music account: @music.joemcken.net

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Joé McKen @joemcken.net · Mar 31
Obligatory pinned:

💻 Personal website

🦋 BLUESKY:
» Personal – You’re here!
» Music

🐘 MASTODON (bridged/mirrored from Bsky):
» Personal
» Music

🐦 𝕏/TWITTER (inactive, archive only):
» Personal
» Music

🎵 MUSIC:
» Bandcamp
» SoundCloud
» YouTube
» Commission information
Reposted by Joé McKen
jaredlholt.bsky.social
Current U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, btw.
gopher33j.bsky.social Coach Jerry (referee 🔵) @gopher33j.bsky.social · 1h
Of all the things in the history of the world that definitely did not happen - this is the pinnacle.
A screenshot of a tweet by Nick Adams (@NickAdamsinUSA), verified, posted about four hours earlier. The tweet claims he overheard several college women at an OrangeTheory gym talking about “Melania” after a workout. He writes that they admired the First Lady’s “class, humanity, and business acumen,” and includes quoted dialogue using slang like “Period sis” and “Slay queen,” saying they were surprised by her intelligence and talent. The tweet continues with a quote claiming the women said President Trump is a good husband and a gentleman and that the media lies about him. It concludes with the author asserting that the film he references has secured the female vote for the GOP in the midterms.
February 3, 2026 at 2:14 AM
joemcken.net
@kenwhite.bsky.social I don’t know for a fact that this reply to your post on The UnPopulist is by Greg Lukianoff … but man does it give me the same vibe of “wtf is this terrible reasoning” that I’ve gotten the last couple times I saw his writing on the subject.
Screenshot: — I’m generally a big Ken White fan, and I agree with the bulk of this essay, but I have never cared for his “first speaker” framework; it struck me as both too cumbersome and too convenient when I first read it, and it still does. Even so, I agree with the baseline view that we need to avoid the trap of protecting anyone’s expression at the expense of someone else’s, especially when there is a clear imbalance of “speech power.” But he really lost me here: “Or take Amy Wax, a loathsome bigot who thinks America would be better if my children—born in Asia, American citizens since we adopted them as infants—weren’t here. FIRE believes—correctly—that when Wax’s university seeks to discipline her for speech, it must obey its own rules and carefully consider the values of academic freedom and due process. FIRE also says, again correctly, that as far as it is concerned, ‘her viewpoint is beside the point.’ But then it goes further and offers her a platform to promote her views. That’s a ‘free speech culture’ ethos move. “‘Free speech culture’ becomes bad and unserious when it starts telling us that speech is morally neutral, that we should not make value judgments against it, and that there is no moral component to promoting it. I am committed to the defense of the legal right to speak, but the defense of speech does not require us to refrain from speaking frankly about moral truths. Giving Wax a platform to be a bigot is morally distinguishable from saying she should be free to be a bigot. ‘The only immoral thing you can say is that someone else’s speech is immoral’ is not an ethos worthy of respect.” Screenshot, cont’d: — I think you’ve overstated and villainized FIRE’s decision to “platform”—a term I despise because it tends to carry its own payload of coded messaging—Prof. Wax and her “loathsome” views (which you quite clearly take personally). In your view, Wax must be condemned and should be identified as immoral by anyone who is not the government or is bound by the First Amendment. Sorry, but the problem with that viewpoint is that it itself is just another version of the “free speech culture ethos.” In your case, you’ve decided her views are bad, and that it’s immoral to hold them. I tend to agree with you, but not entirely. What I don’t agree with is that there is any affirmative duty to refuse to allow those views to be aired in a setting like FIRE’s online faculty webinar. The only “test” you’ve listed here is that, according to your moral compass, Wax’s views are so bold that treating her free speech rights as morally neutral is “unserious.” No slippery slope there. Nowhere has FIRE asserted that Prof. Wax’s views are morally neutral. What they have asserted is that her right to speak them and defend them is. That they have “platformed” her is their absolute right, just as it is everyone else’s right to refuse to read or listen to it, to attempt to vilify it, to doxx it, etc. You can decide that their choice represents a moral failing of such magnitude that you’ll never give them another dime. By all means, call out the immorality! But it makes their framework “unserious” in your view only because they’ve chosen to treat her differently than you would. Frankly, I think their framework is more rigorous than your own: it does not depend on a definition of morality. If this is the reason that “young people” think the First Amendment is a bad deal, then we have taught them poorly indeed. Morality, and its relative seriousness, will change over time. Free speech should not.
February 3, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
masnick.com
In part because the Trump administration is directly dismantling Biden's efforts to get affordable broadband everywhere (as @karlbode.com keeps reporting on).
emilylhauser.bsky.social Emily L. Hauser (she/her) ❌👑 @emilylhauser.bsky.social · 2h
There are many horrible things to note here but I'm going to pull out just one:

How will people in rural areas access these farkakte A.i.-based avatars WHEN THEY STILL CAN'T GET BROADBAND.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7h
Dr Oz on rural healthcare: "There's no question about it, whether you want it or not -- the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars"
February 3, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
kenwhite.bsky.social
I spent all that time satirizing it and Bari Weiss just says it
February 3, 2026 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
Judge Reyes’s conclusion: “There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. … Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, [Noem] pounds X (f/k/a Twitter).”
VIl. CONCLUSION There is an old adage among lawyers. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither, pound the table. Secretary Noem, the record to-date shows, does not have the facts on her side or at least has ignored them. Does not have the law on her side or at least has ignored it. Having neither and bringing the adage into the 21st century, she pounds X (f/k/a Twitter). Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants. Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that. By accompanying Order, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705. Ana C. Reyes Date: February 2, 2026 ANA C. REYES United States District Judge
February 3, 2026 at 12:49 AM
joemcken.net
This is about as polite as someone can be whilst plainly calling a government official a massive bigoted piece of shit.
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 1h
BREAKING: Judge Ana Reyes, in DC, issues a stay of DHS Sec. Noem’s decision to end Haiti’s temporary protected status (TPS) designation, a decision that was to go into effect on Tuesday and could have ended legal status for up to 350,000 people overnight. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FRITZ EMMANUEL LESLY MIOT, et al., Plaintiffs, Case No. 25-cv-02471 (ACR) V. DONALD J. TRUMP, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: "America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions." More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington's vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take.? eSec Noem I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom-not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE. 6:52 PM - Dec 1, 2025 - 13.2M Views ' Letter from George Washington to Joshua Holmes (December 2, 1783). 2 Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl.) 1110 n.91. But see supra n.l. So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) "damn" countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti's TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. See 90 Fed. Reg. 54733 (Nov. 28, 2025) (Termination). Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies." They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer's disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) 1 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. 1 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. | 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. 9| 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id. 9|5. They claim that Secretary Noem's decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law. Plaintiffs seek to stay the Secretary's decision under 5 U.S.C. § 705 pending the outcome of this litigation. See Dkt. 81 (§ 705 Mot.). To decide their motion, the Court considers first whether it has jurisdiction. It does. See Part II. It then considers: whether Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; whether they will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; and whether a merged balance of the equities and public interest analysis favors a stay. See Part III. Each element favors Plaintiffs. See Parts IV, V, and VI. Finally, the balance of equities and public interest favor a stay. The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste. Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured. This approach is many things— in the public interest is not one of them. For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705, Dkt. 81.
February 3, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
BREAKING: Judge Ana Reyes, in DC, issues a stay of DHS Sec. Noem’s decision to end Haiti’s temporary protected status (TPS) designation, a decision that was to go into effect on Tuesday and could have ended legal status for up to 350,000 people overnight. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FRITZ EMMANUEL LESLY MIOT, et al., Plaintiffs, Case No. 25-cv-02471 (ACR) V. DONALD J. TRUMP, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: "America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions." More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington's vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take.? eSec Noem I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom-not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON'T WANT THEM. NOT ONE. 6:52 PM - Dec 1, 2025 - 13.2M Views ' Letter from George Washington to Joshua Holmes (December 2, 1783). 2 Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl.) 1110 n.91. But see supra n.l. So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) "damn" countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti's TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. See 90 Fed. Reg. 54733 (Nov. 28, 2025) (Termination). Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies." They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer's disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) 1 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. 1 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. | 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. 9| 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id. 9|5. They claim that Secretary Noem's decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law. Plaintiffs seek to stay the Secretary's decision under 5 U.S.C. § 705 pending the outcome of this litigation. See Dkt. 81 (§ 705 Mot.). To decide their motion, the Court considers first whether it has jurisdiction. It does. See Part II. It then considers: whether Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; whether they will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; and whether a merged balance of the equities and public interest analysis favors a stay. See Part III. Each element favors Plaintiffs. See Parts IV, V, and VI. Finally, the balance of equities and public interest favor a stay. The Government does not cite any reason termination must occur post haste. Secretary Noem complains of strains unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959 lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn the insured into the uninsured. This approach is many things— in the public interest is not one of them. For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs' Renewed Motion for a Stay Under 5 U.S.C. § 705, Dkt. 81.
February 3, 2026 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
shoutingboy.bsky.social
I think Ms. Bondi is increasingly aware that if she doesn’t get a pardon she will die in prison, and her pardon depends entirely on the goodwill of someone who’s entirely capable of screaming “why should I do anything for you when you wouldn’t put Peekaboo James in jail like I told you to”
February 2, 2026 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
If you campaigned for the presidency on a promise to destroy these assholes, you would win a landslide the size of FDR in 1936, when he campaigned on a promise to destroy these assholes.
citizensnippy.bsky.social Citizen Snippy △ @citizensnippy.bsky.social · 2h
Yes, Peter decided that the continued existence of our democracies isn't compatible with his desired level of personal freedom.

An absolute enemy of humanity.
"I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." - Peter Thiel
February 3, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
swordsjew.bsky.social
death by preventable disease is an inevitable and even desired outcome of concentration camps. in every era of concentration camps people have died of typhus, which is a disease of privation and enforced crowding. this illness is intentionally inflicted
February 2, 2026 at 4:52 AM
Reposted by Joé McKen
radleybalko.bsky.social
Every now and then we get a reminder that in addition to stealing from their own supporters, MAGA leaders really don’t care if their supporters live or die.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7h
Dr Oz on rural healthcare: "There's no question about it, whether you want it or not -- the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars"
February 2, 2026 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
nkalamb.bsky.social
Professional athletes are being advised not to leave the hotel or go anywhere without their passports while visiting Minnesota.

This is not a country that can safely host international events like the World Cup.

Boycotting is not even a political question anymore. It is a basic issue of safety.
srossmktg.com Spencer M Ross @srossmktg.com · 9h
The Montreal Canadiens are playing the Minnesota Wild in Minneapolis tonight. The players have been recommended to stay in/eat at the hotel, take the team bus to the arena, and carry passports.

Perhaps we shouldn't be hosting the World Cup and the Olympics...
February 2, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
missinglynxnh.bsky.social
If you are defining law for a country of 350 million people, you don't get to do it in secrecy.

I feel like this shouldn't be a big ask but...
jamellebouie.net jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12h
i am very much of the view that undermining the court’s secrecy is a necessary part of remaking it into something like an actual court (and not some guardian council) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...
How the Supreme Court Secretly Made Itself Even More Secretive
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
numb.comfortab.ly
I was sitting in a hipster coffee shop this morning, it was packed with liberal whispering to each other what a timeless masterpiece Melania movie is.
acyn.bsky.social Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 6h
Kayleigh: My mom went to see Melania. She said the theater was packed, it was standing room only. People were cheering through it, they were excited. It was interactive—people interplaying with the film. She said it was just electric.
February 2, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
hebagowayed.bsky.social
I don’t think I can say this forcefully enough: hundreds of thousands of Haitians will lose status tomorrow with racist ending of their TPS & are spending today refreshing their feeds for a court order that could literally save thier lives.

This is nothing short of psychosocial torture.
February 2, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
juliedicaro.bsky.social
I’m sorry, what?

www.yahoo.com/news/article...
The awkwardness happened Saturday night at the Alfalfa Club dinner, an invitation-only event for some 200 of the rich and powerful who gather together each year on Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s birthday.
February 2, 2026 at 6:26 PM
joemcken.net
I for one am shocked to find out that Nancy Mace is a cartoonish disaster of a human in private. After all, she always seems so graceful and reasonable in public.
February 2, 2026 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
kenwhite.bsky.social
If my math is right 20% of the office has now resigned, including the previous group of resignations. That’s debilitating.

www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...
Live: Eight more federal prosecutors set to leave the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office
The recent wave of departures follows the mass exodus of six veteran prosecutors last month who quit in protest of recent directives from the U.S. Department of Justice.
www.startribune.com
February 2, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
(Nixon voice) my God
February 2, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
phileil.bsky.social
I'm old enough to remember when vowing to sue someone for cracking a joke about you was considered, fairly definitively, to be Loser Behavior.
nbcnews.com NBC News @nbcnews.com · 12h
President Trump is threatening to sue Trevor Noah over a joke at last night's Grammy Awards, saying that Noah's crack claiming he visited Jeffrey Epstein's island was "false and defamatory."
Trump threatens to sue Trevor Noah over joke about Epstein's island
President Donald Trump called the joke, which Noah made at last night's Grammy Awards, "false and defamatory," again insisting he has never visited Jeffrey Epstein's island.
www.nbcnews.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
kenwhite.bsky.social
Although the article unequivocally shows the Illini Republicans are bigoted edgelords, it also demonstrates they are weak cowards, unwilling to support their words and scuttling like cockroaches when light is shone on them.
February 2, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
surcomplicated.bsky.social
This is genuinely alarming. My guess is that this is a petulant attempt to stop the leaks that created a huge media circus for the Court more than once now.

Of course, it's unlikely to actually have any effect, b/c they already understood their work to be confidential and leaked anyway.
leahlitman.bsky.social Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 14h
Jodi Kantor in the NY Times reports that the Chief Justice requested Court employees sign nondisclosure agreements in November 2024 - moving to formal contracts requiring silence/confidentiality after Trump was reelected: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...
In November of 2024, two weeks after voters returned President Donald Trump to office, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. summoned employees of the U.S. Supreme Court for an unusual announcement. Facing them in a grand conference room beneath ornate chandeliers, he requested they each sign a nondisclosure agreement promising to keep the court’s inner workings secret.
February 2, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
diplomatofnight.com
Doesn't seem like this should be his job
Schumer: "I have many jobs as leader.. and one is to fight for aid to Israel — all the aid that Israel needs. I will continue to fight for it. «We delivered more security assistance to Israel, our ally, under my leadership than ever, ever before. We will keep doing that."
February 1, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
parkermolloy.com
I think it's funny that this interview gave Chotiner a chance to reference this thing he tweeted about 4 years ago
Isaac Chotiner @IChotiner X.com *Brett Ratner* cast *Roman Polanski* in a 'Rush Hour 3' cameo in 2007, during which the latter gets to joke about penetrating Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker amidst a 'cavity search.' This has to be one of the most morally depraved moments in movie history. 8:47 AM • 5/7/22
February 2, 2026 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Joé McKen
jamellebouie.net
like this is absurd, get over yourselves
The justices claim their papers belong to them, not the government or the public, and generally arrange to have them locked away until long after their deaths. The court releases no visitor logs to reveal who meets with the justices.
February 2, 2026 at 1:57 PM