Michael Rooney
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mr00ney.bsky.social
Michael Rooney
@mr00ney.bsky.social
720 followers 750 following 1.1K posts
Philosopher by training. Co-author, with Richard L. Epstein, of Critical Thinking (5e). Eight-time winner on Jeopardy. Southern Californian. Sansei.
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mr00ney.bsky.social
When the coffee you are drinking does not, in fact, keep you from nodding off
Photo of a pant leg with a large coffee stain
November 18, 2025 at 7:52 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
The then-sitting President of the Maldives (with a Ph.D. from Stanford) asked college drop-out & convict Jeffery Epstein whether he should believe a Nigerian prince scam.

For all the talk of Trump voters being gullible morons, the Epstein files expose the world’s elites as being much the same.
An email: From: Mohamed Waheed [ Sent: 1/27/2013 4:33:18 AM To: Jeffrey Epstein [jeevacation@gmail.com] Subject: Re: Importance: High Thank you. You are my savior. I will do exactly what you said. Sent from my iPhone On Jan 27, 2013, at 9:29 AM. Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation@gmail.com> wrote: this from a fraud web site, your mimister will get upset that you dont want to at least try, what do we have to lose, always the pitch. THe following from the fraud site. --The essential fact in all advance-fee fraud operations is that the promised money transfer never happens because the money does not exist. The perpetrators rely on the fact that, by the time the victim realizes this (often only after being confronted by a third party who has noticed the transactions or conversation and recognized the scam, the victim may have sent thousands of dollars of their own money, and sometimes thousands or millions more that has been borrowed or stolen, to the scammer via an untraceable and/or irreversible means such as wire transfer. 3] Stay away, however if you want to embarass your possible opponent, you might set it up so that he looks like a fool, ask for amemo of why he thinks you should agree, have it include as many detials as possible, so that when you prove its a fraud,, you will make him look very silly as opposed to his saying, you missed an opportunity, anyway, glad you are well On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 10:49 PM, Mohamed Waheed Hassan › wrote: Jeffrey, Need your advice. My finance minister is telling me that he has an anonymous funds manager who is willing to deposit 4 billion dollars in Maldives and that they are willing to lend a percentage of that in exchange for government promissory notes. The 4 billion would be deposited in the Central Bank. But they want us to set up a special purpose vehicle, a construction company fully owned by the government to receive the loan. Such a company can only be set up under a presidential decree. 1 am also told that the funds manage…
November 15, 2025 at 3:13 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Visited the oldest still-open Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles the other night. It was like what grandma used to make.
Photo of an urban street after nightfall, with a storefront at right, with glass window and door, kanji signage, and paper lamps. A lit up yellow sign reads “OTOMISAN Japanese Restaurant” in English and Japanese. On the curbside edge of the sidewalk, a small sign posted by the City of Los Angeles reads “Otomisan Restaurant: The Last Remaining Japanese Restaurant in Boyle Heights.” A photo of a plate of food on a pale blue counter. On the plate is white rice with brown-hued curry sauce poured over it and two potato croquettes. A small green salad, lemon wedge, and pink gari complete the dish. A cup of green tea and an empty miso soup bowl are in the background; chopsticks lie at the ready to one side.
November 14, 2025 at 5:40 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net Young Dems: idk I think saying "committed suicide" is problematic :/ Young Republicans: "I love hitler" Politico• @politico.com • 19h EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat. Inside rising GOP leaders' racist chats - obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months everyone inat votes no is going to the gas chamber. AIsO... we are oncially under consideration for a Trump endorsement. © Great. I love Hitler you're giving nationals to much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest 2s Stay in the closet f-...t I'm ready to watch people burn now Are you g takes? If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked fr fr I'd go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball When do we start bullying dude? It was rape Boom -they're dead. Kick the b---h And everyone that endorsed but then votes for us is going to the gas chamber. They love the watermelon He also hates the people Yoooooooo This airl is fully r...-d 'I love Hitler': Leaked messages expose Young Republicans' racist chat Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP
October 23, 2025 at 7:10 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Protestor holding sign: “CROMWELL WAS RIGHT (not about Ireland)” Sign: “Either we all live in a decent world, or nobody does.” George Orwell [from his review of Anand’s Letters on India, 1943] Sign: “Today’s to-do list: [one box, checked] Fight for Democracy” Sign: “No Arc de Trump!!!” with a drawing of an arch with the red ‘no symbol’ through it
October 19, 2025 at 2:05 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Sign, held by protestor wearing a Darth Vader mask on the back of his head: “NO KINGS, NO EMPEROR” Signs: “2+2=5 War is peace Freedom is slavery Ignorance is strength” “Stop kidnapping our people” “Guns have more rights than women” Sign: “Our 3 branches of government: Corruption [next to photo of Trump] Cowardice [next to photo of Chief Justice Roberts] Cover-Ups [next to photo of Speaker Johnson]” Sign: “Be smart California: Vote Yes on 50”
October 19, 2025 at 1:56 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
No Kings rally, Los Angeles, 18 October 2025
In front of City Hall, protestors throng. A slogan from Andor is taped to a lamppost: “I have friends everywhere” A crowd of protestors occupying Spring Street Sign: “FASCISM WAS/IS BAD” Sign: “Defend Democracy: It’s time for a general strike!”
October 19, 2025 at 1:51 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Seen in Los Angeles today
Photo taken in front of Los Angeles City Hall, 18 October 2025: a protestor holding a sign reading “CROMWELL WAS RIGHT (not about Ireland)”
October 19, 2025 at 1:47 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
P. Shelley, 1832:
Rise like lions after slumber In unvanquishable NUMBER! . Shake your chains to earth, like dew Which in sleep had fall'n on you: YE ARE MANY-THEY ARE FEW.
October 18, 2025 at 10:34 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
My current operational definition of “romanticizing” is any delight in a phenomenon that is contingent on being comfortably removed from said phenomenon, as in liking rain.
This Bluesky user, throughly drenched by forty minutes walking in light (0.5”) but steady rainfall.
October 15, 2025 at 8:57 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
I feared a film about 1984 would be too on-the-nose today, but I was wrong. Raoul Peck simply does not miss. His new documentary, Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5, is even more riveting and incisive than I Am Not Your Negro. In the q&a, he said a US theatrical release was something he insisted on. See it.
Filmmaker Raoul Peck being interviewed after a screening of his new documentary, ORWELL: 2 + 2 = 5
October 10, 2025 at 4:48 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Disney Hall, well past midnight, still and empty. The US Bank Tower in Los Angeles, late at night. The Los Angeles Theatre in downtown, late at night, its facade brightly lit even though it does not currently show films.
October 7, 2025 at 10:57 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
The new Metro Blue Line extension allows riders to take one train from Long Beach to Claremont (or anywhere in-between) for $1.75, which is a very good deal. On an unrelated note, that Redford fella was pretty good at picking roles in movies that stand the test of time.
The Los Angeles Metro Rail Station in north Pomona North Figueroa Street, Highland Park Eagle Rock Boulevard at night Me
October 6, 2025 at 6:53 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Under a fair blue sky, the photo is dominated by a field of gold-hued grass with flattened tire tracks running through the grass into the distance. Trees with greenish-sallow leaves fill the horizon. To the right of the tracks, a classic big red barn, with white trim and picket fence, sits in the middle distance. The whole is illuminated by a setting sun. It is fall in Ventura County, near Thousand Oaks.
September 30, 2025 at 4:11 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
TIL that the root that became in Greek “hydra” is the same that became in English “otter.”

Maybe the Greeks’ ancestors navigated more dangerous, monster-filled waters than the proto-Germans did. Or maybe they were incredible pansies.
A photo of three European otters asleep, looking utterly lazy and inoffensive.
September 23, 2025 at 8:44 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Independent UN panel’s report, concluding Israeli actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocide agreed on in the Geneva Conventions. Many of the examples they discuss—deliberate killings of toddlers, aid workers, paramedics, people at food distribution sites, embryos in an IVF clinic—are damning.
… infliction of conditions of life in Gaza calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza, especially the blocking of medicine, medical equipment, food and water from entering Gaza. The Commission finds that Israeli authorities knew that blocking the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza would lead to the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. Based on the abovementioned reasons, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities intended to kill and cause the deaths of the Palestinians in Gaza through the military operations and war strategies employed. 49. The Commission finds that the killing of Palestinians since 7 October 2023 occurred mainly through three different means: (i) killing through attacks against protected objects (such as civilian homes and healthcare facilities) where civilians were present; (i1) targeting civilians and other protected persons, for example, during the evacuations, within safe zones or at shelters; and iii) deaths due to the deliberate infliction of conditions of life (such as the blockade of medicine and medical equipment and humanitarian aid from entering into Gaza). 50. As such, the Commission concludes that the actus reus and mens rea of 'killing members of the group' under article Il(a) of the Genocide Convention are established.
September 16, 2025 at 2:30 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Photo of a full moon near dusk, against a grayish but clear sky. A copper church steeple (First United Methodist in Pasadena) is in the foreground.
September 7, 2025 at 3:17 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Maybe, but the numbers don’t strongly support this as peculiar to Gen X. More AIDS deaths occurred among Boomers in the US.
A graph from the CDC showing annual rates of death due to HIV infection by age group, 1987-2009. The tallest line until 2004 is for ages 35-44, an age cohort Generation X did not start to fall into until 1999.
August 27, 2025 at 5:01 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
A photo of Van Gogh’s Les Iris (May 1889), taken at the Getty in Los Angeles.
August 24, 2025 at 11:24 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Overkill against a former insider who turned is classic mobster behavior.
Still from The Godfather Part II, showing Al Pacino as Michael Corleone squeezing his brother Fredo (John Cazale).
August 22, 2025 at 12:18 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
North Brooklin, Maine 30 March 1973 Dear Mr. Nadeau: As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness. Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out. Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day. Sincerely, E. B. White
August 18, 2025 at 10:28 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
The Blue Rigi, Sunrise (1842) by J.M.W. Turner
August 9, 2025 at 9:34 AM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Not normally, true.
Photo still from an original Star Trek episode, showing Spock, Kirk, and McCoy on another planet. Kirk is adjusting a small red triangular swallowtail pennant flag emblazoned with 13 five-pointed stars and the letters UFP, standing at chest height. It all looks awkward.
July 28, 2025 at 7:53 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
A photo of two pomegranates growing from a tall, leafy branch. The pomegranates are still green. In the background there is blue sky.
July 25, 2025 at 6:14 PM
mr00ney.bsky.social
Walking L.A. from north of Chinatown into Little Tokyo yesterday. It would have been a good day for kites.
Photo from Spring Street bridge over the Los Angeles River, looking north. In the distance the Verdugo Mountains are visible and, beyond them, the Angeles National Forest. The sky is blue and clear. Two kites with streamers fly in the distance. A high metal fence is in the foreground. Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, from across the street to its south.
July 23, 2025 at 6:18 PM