Peter Josyph

@peterjosyph.bsky.social

Hey Peter, a voice from the past.

I’ve been trying to locate you for years, I only have an old email address from back 15 years ago.

The day of the election I felt the same as I did on 9/11/01 so I unpacked your Liberty Street book, read it. Just found you!

Indeed not.

Each of these incidents is a test, checking the pushback.

No. The director cleared off tons of shelf space that stayed bare for years. The director - since fired - hated books and lied about why she was trashing them. One librarian used to call me to get rescue books when the director was out. Your insults are not opinions, so I’m blocking you.

It wasn’t an error.

Is angry librarian energy supposed to be an insult? How do I vote for an angry librarian

When Half Hollow Hills Library dumpstered 2/3 of its books, I had angry-AT-librarian energy.

The new building has over 70 Danielle Steel and 1 John Steinbeck. So I tend to stay away.

Good librarians do great, brave things. But I have known librarians who hate books…

Company bans white supremacists from renting trucks Penske Truck Rental said it had banned members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front from renting its vehicles.

Penske has banned racists from renting their trucks but what happens when the Nazis are now *the government*??

I’d very much like to hear what Penske execs are saying today. They can’t control who rents their trucks or why but I can’t imagine they’re happy with this imagery 😬

SELF-CARE TIP: If you're not JD Vance, periodically remind yourself that at least you're not JD Vance.

Bonus 167: The Case for Not Writing With the justices handing down so many significant grants of emergency relief without rationales, it's worth identifying the arguments in support of unexplained rulings—and why they fail to persuade.

Although I wrote it before Justice Kavanaugh’s remarks this week at the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference attempting to defend #SCOTUS not explaining its rulings, I suspect that folks will find this “One First” post rather … responsive:

www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-167-...

But you can’t buy things or advertise on a printing press and only a few well-trained men used it in any town. What was printed on it’s a different topic.

Sty you might try THE NOTEBOOK re: how it made possible double entries and a whole new way of doing business.

That’s me to the audience after years of Strasberg & Stanislavski and I still can’t cry on cue.

A SCOTUS approved, deranged American sadist appoints another deranged American sadist to defund vaccination research and hopefully kill more Americans to please a deranged Russian sadist, but let’s obsess over the Epstein files so Congress & the Courts can do nothing about whoever gets named. OK.

FEMA Employees Reassigned to ICE Probationary employees who had been on paid leave were told to report to ICE within seven days or lose their jobs. It could signal problems with ICE recruitment.

🚨SCOOP:
A "select" number of FEMA probationary employees have been involuntarily reassigned to ICE, effective immediately, to "assist with hiring and vetting." If the employees don't report to ICE within seven days, they are threatened with termination.
prospect.org/labor/2025-0...

Photo of Robert Mitchum sitting on his bunk in his jail cell, holding a cup of coffee, 1948.

After serving a 60-day jail sentence for weed possession: "It was like Palm Springs without the riffraff."
- Robert Mitchum #BOTD 1917

At the artists colony Yaddo in upstate New York they had a Quiet Table. No chatter even sitting across from someone. A fine Jamaican novelist who became a friend sat opposite me and we nodded our good mornings.

Absurdly people assume that walking around means awake & available. I can’t tell you how many times I have to say “I’m still asleep.” Yes I’ve been technically “up” for an hour but that does not mean “capable of human life; e.g. errands, chores, complaints, or - worst - deciding the color of a rug.”

Surveilling Toasters reminds me of Navalny, in his memoir PATRIOT, talking about his parents’ generation putting a cushion over the phone so it wouldn’t record them saying something mildly critical…

I was helping my parents order a new toaster and I cannot believe how daft we would have sounded if someone from 2000 had heard us.

We had a serious discussion about smart toasters and why they won't get one because they don't want the toaster to spy on them or get hacked.

The Best Rated toaster I could find had one minor drawback: if you looked directly at it while it toasted, it would damage your retinas. You’d need eclipse glasses just to make breakfast…

I know a retired FBI agent called back in to manage a case of corruption within the Bureau.

If you, Jo, are called in to advise on Philosophy curricula, be sure to recommend courses on Human Speech.

Exactly why so many people are singing together:
“We want our rights
And we don’t care how
We
Want
A Revolution
NOW!!!!!”

Clearly, Jo, you speak of a world that excludes cartoons…

VAUDEVILLE PATIENT: “Doctor it hurts when I do this.”
VAUDEVILLE DOCTOR: “Don’t do that.”

No idea why your post reminds me of that…

I’d say: “The future wants to restrict me to 3 words so I told it to fuck off.”

Decades after word processors, PCs, Macs and laptops were the way to go, Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize writing on his Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter.

Decades after AI will be the way to teach, learn, research, travel, invest, and make what’ll be called art, good work will be done without it.

Healthcare isn’t a privilege. It’s a human right.
Millions still struggle with costs, coverage gaps, and corporate greed.
We need universal care — not more profit-driven loopholes.

My friend at U of Derby was just dismissed after 30 years. As one of the most senior he is one of the most expensive, so they trashed him. A fine well-published writer & dedicated teacher, he’s now likely to lose his home. He said: “Not really the reward I was expecting for my 30+ years of service.”

I believe one of the new mRNA vaccines was expected to treat colon cancer, and another had the potential to keep pancreatic cancer from recurring. That’s what they’re taking away.