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James Stephens, J.D.
James Stephens, J.D.

999 Followers

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Jul 24

… quality. They are tired of the creator treadmill. The changes to our incentives below are big, and we hope that they give authors an alternative to the opportunities they get on the rest of the Internet. Tell your story rather than churn out content. Take the time to go deeper, research longer, edit more. We will always be shifting our payment and distribution incentives for this type of writing.

New Partner Program incentives focus on high-quality human writing
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1.2K

Buster Benson

I'm pleased to hear this.

I'm pleased to hear this. It was disheartening and demotivating to discover that careful writing was not rewarded better than speedy blather. It's one of the reasons I haven't been writing on Medium for the past few months. I look forward to giving Medium another shot at my time and effort since this issue has been recognized and remediation is being attempted.

1 min read

1 min read


May 26

But the data trend shows that evangelical churches are likely to be more engaged, more active and more regularly attended than other types of churches in the future.

Evangelical and Catholic Church Attendance Heading in Opposite Directions
891
26

Paul Walker

True, but the things that engage many such evangelical congregations have to do with the heresy of…

True, but the things that engage many such evangelical congregations have to do with the heresy of christian nationalism.

1 min read

1 min read


May 18

As my experience demonstrates, Trumpism, or whatever the right name for this insanity is, is a spiritual virus infecting people’s minds.

It’s Not About Intelligence
459
7

Martin Berman-Gorvine

Considering the massive role a warped kind of religious fervor is playing with American fascism, we…

Considering the massive role a warped kind of religious fervor is playing with American fascism, we should rule nothing out merely because it sounds unscientific. I've found the theory that this madness you speak of is the result of "minds that are willingly given over to spiritual darkness to be manipulated " to be a fitting explanation. Tucker Carlson may have been accidentally but literally correct when he called Trump a "demonic force". Less supernatural sociological and psychological explanations exist, but none seem fully convincing. Higher IQs and higher education give some natural resistance but do not make one fully immune from whatever this fascist plague is.

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Published in

Unpopular Opinions

·Mar 31

Nixon Gave Ford a Test and Ford Failed, Resulting in Trump’s Presidency

Had Ford made Nixon face the music then Trump’s mob boss presidency would not have happened — As a historian of U.S. legal history, I’ve been fascinated (and horrified) as I watch the predictable outcome of one fateful decision made on Sept. 7, 1974. Ford gave higher priority to lesser considerations over the foundational ones. The temptation to do so was understandable. But it led to a…

Trump

2 min read

Nixon Gave Ford a Test and Ford Failed, Resulting in Trump’s Presidency
Nixon Gave Ford a Test and Ford Failed, Resulting in Trump’s Presidency
Trump

2 min read


Published in

Politically Speaking

·Mar 8

It Isn’t ‘Bulls***’ if It Came From an Elephant (Or a Fox ), but a Lie Is Still A Lie

Capital footage used to lie about the January 6th violence — To their credit, Republican senators, and other responsible adults, are already denouncing Fox News’ attempt to lie about Jan 6th violent coup attempt via manipulated and cherry-picked video footage. One senator called it bullshit. …

Politics

2 min read

It Isn’t ‘Bulls***’ if It Came From an Elephant (Or a Fox ), but a Lie Is Still A Lie
It Isn’t ‘Bulls***’ if It Came From an Elephant (Or a Fox ), but a Lie Is Still A Lie
Politics

2 min read


Mar 7

Mastodon and Me: The Puppy Stage

The training has been going well since the adoption — Since my naughty, untrainable Twitter ran away a few months ago. I signed up to adopt a Mastodon using Tony Stubblebine's emailed instructions, which included changing my too-long Medium username to something Mastodon-friendly. It was easy. After we spent a bit of time getting to know each other, Mastodon and…

Mastodon

2 min read

Mastodon and Me: The Puppy Stage
Mastodon and Me: The Puppy Stage
Mastodon

2 min read


Published in

The Shortform

·Mar 6

Trump’s Sermon at CPAC

And the MAGA Lord said, “Follow me, and I will kick ass for you”. — On Saturday, March 4th, at CPAC, Donald J. Trump delivered the most perfect inspiring message for Christians ever to be uttered since the hippy-dippy Sermon on the Mount. “…I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution,” —…

Satire

1 min read

Trump’s Sermon at CPAC
Trump’s Sermon at CPAC
Satire

1 min read


Mar 4

Hold on a sec. I just want to peek out my window to make sure that I am still living in the United States of America. Cuz where I live, there’s a Constitution with a First Amendment that says that the government can’t regulate my speech.

Florida Legislature Wants to Force Political Bloggers to Register
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24

Caren White

When I first read about this a couple of days ago I thought it was extreme hyperbole acting as…

When I first read about this a couple of days ago I thought it was extreme hyperbole acting as clickbait. I fact-checked the headline, and to my shock and horror it was real. This would have been considered too farfetched to ever happen prior to the MAGA movement. Now, any fascist thing could happen if we don't push back hard.

1 min read

1 min read


Published in

Unpopular Opinions

·Mar 3

Dear MAGA Friends: I Still Love You, but I Don’t Currently Like You

I still hope our relationship will be repaired — Dear Friend, And you are dear to me. I treasure our friendship, and it breaks my heart when we are at odds. I hate the way things are. We should hate things that are bad, like both of us used to in better times. Frankly, those were times before the…

Politics

3 min read

Dear MAGA Friends: I Still Love You, but I Don’t Currently Like You
Dear MAGA Friends: I Still Love You, but I Don’t Currently Like You
Politics

3 min read


Published in

The Shortform

·Mar 2

Two Simple Things to Remember for Safe Use of ChatGPT

Practice Zero-Guile and Use Due Diligence — As A.I.-assisted writing becomes mainstream, it’s important that questions be asked about the ethical conventions of authorship. For example, what is the difference between slapping your name on something written by ChatGPT and something written by a ghostwriter? How are both not plagiarism if you don’t divulge that you didn’t…

Ethics

1 min read

Two Simple Things to Remember for Safe Use of ChatGPT
Two Simple Things to Remember for Safe Use of ChatGPT
Ethics

1 min read

James Stephens, J.D.

James Stephens, J.D.

999 Followers

Historian, J.D., husband, father, and dog lover, writing from The Berkshires.

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