@davidaugust@mastodon.online cover
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davidaugust

@[email protected]

Actor. Writer. Acting coach. May have been in that thing you saw that one time (Dependent's Day, Jimmy Kimmel Live, 2nd City/Chicago Shakespeare).

ORCID: 0000-0002-8304-5874

#actor #writer #ActingCoach #producer #director #Shakespeare #film #tv #movies https://www.davidaugust.com/

Was @davidaugust on #Twitter
searchable on #fedi22

I sometimes write playful screenplays about very capable people in extremely high pressure situations often playing out their internal damage on the world.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

@w7voa@journa.host avatar w7voa , to random

KABC TV - LAPD issues dispersal order in downtown: tear gas fired. https://abc7.com/watch/live/

davidaugust ,
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@w7voa LAPD lost control of itself? I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

@cynthiarose @fridaghitis honestly, that’s not a bad idea. 😝

@Thorn suggested putting a sticker over the “PAR” that makes it crystal clear, like this or something:

[red circle with diagonal red line through it over a crown] No Kings
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davidaugust OP ,
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@stux @cynthiarose @fridaghitis @Thorn Ooo, I like that as a new emoji!

davidaugust OP ,
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@stux I would love that.

@Mastodon , can you add the :nokings: emoji mentioned here (link below) to the mastodon.online instance?

https://mastodon.online/@[email protected]/114683960441146532

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

via @fridaghitis

Screenshot of a post by Frida Ghitis @fridaghitis.bsky.social: The neighborhood is getting ready for tomorrow [photo of a no parking any time street sign, with the "par" covered by white tape so the sign now says, "no king any time"]
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@AnarchoNinaWrites@jorts.horse avatar AnarchoNinaWrites , to random

Lol, it's on tape you absolute fucking dipshit. It's on fucking tape. He identifies himself, he did not lunge at anyone, Noem and McLaughlin aren't this stupid, so it clearly means they think you are.

davidaugust ,
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Just did a once over on my Vimeo as a portfolio for a lead producer job application.

Mainly, just updated some descriptions. Nice to be reminded of some past work I like: https://vimeo.com/davidaugust

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

"…give a formerly flat character some single defining trait, obsession, or problem to deal with. Just this one weird-yet-relatable thing. And suddenly, this character and the scenes they were in would come alive."

  • Tony Tost

https://practical.substack.com/p/the-mark-of-the-one-note-character

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

72 years later, this image still seems to resonate.

'In America - At This Restaurant Only One Person Is Served' (Krokodil # 4, 1953) by Yuliy Ganf. The solider at the table being well fed is labeled “war” and the neglected tables are labeled 'Education', 'Health Care', 'Libraries' and 'Art'.

'In America - At This Restaurant Only One Person Is Served' (Krokodil #4, 1953) by Yuliy Ganf. This restaurant scene “…where waiters serve piles of money to a soldier, labeled ‘War’. Judging from the types of money they serve, the four waiters represent four Western countries. The man with the knife slices U.S. dollars, hinting that he is an American, perhaps former U.S. President Harry S. Truman (who was already succeeded by Dwight D. Eisenhower by the time this cartoon was printed in Krokodil). The obese man with monocle serves British pounds and could either be then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill or the British national personification John Bull. The man with a whole plate with money, decorated with smelly cheese, is a Frenchman, possibly French Prime Minister Antoine Pinay. The wrinkly green man with swastika badge is West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer (who ironically was active in the German resistance movement during World War II). While 'War' is fed with delicious Western financial nutrition, four other customers wait in vain for service. Their tables are labeled 'Education', 'Health Care', 'Libraries' and 'Art'” - https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/ganf_yuliy.htm
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

😝

screenshot of a post by Jill Filipovic @JillFilipovic: What is the German word for a fight where you're rooting for no one to win and for both sides to tear each other to shreds? Jun 5, 2025 • 8:25 PM UTC
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random
@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Fascinating watching this orangutan tying a knot. 🦧🪢

Orangutang ties a knot in a green cloth, making it into a sort of shawl/cape.

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

A centralized intelligence database on all Americans is not inherently legal.

It likely breaks the Privacy Act of 1974, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the 1st, 4th and 5th Amendments.

This must be stopped. Contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to stop it. I use @5calls to call mine.

https://newrepublic.com/post/195904/trump-palantir-data-americans

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

So Builder . ai Mechanical Turked things and Microsoft (and others) were none the wiser.

Due diligence: boring stuff that when you skip it with catch up with you fast.

“Builder . ai’s platform relied on around 700 engineers based in India who manually wrote code based on customer requests. Despite the company marketing it as AI-generated, most of the work was done by humans behind the scenes.”

https://www.storyboard18.com/digital/london-ai-startup-builder-ai-collapses-after-human-powered-tech-revelation-68299.htm

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

screenshot of a post by attorneyryan: Musk is not “leaving. ”Don’t you get it yet? He spent 5 months deleting every investigation and lawsuit against his companies. Deleting any data he didn’t like. Then he installed backdoors and malware into government systems. He isn’t “leaving.” He just finished. The U.S. federal government is permanently damaged and compromised thanks to republicans, Trump, and musk.
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

tesla has become a car selling company that doesn’t sell cars. But the cars do explode.

space x has become sending rockets to space company that doesn’t make rockets go to space. But the rockets do explode.

elon has become a government waste, fraud and abuse stopper who doesn’t stop government waste, fraud and abuse. Can he follow their lead?

@mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , to random

I think I'm going to stream some Tetris Grand Master tomorrow on https://stream.place as an audition to see if it's a viable replacement for Twitch. If it turns out well I will stream "The End of Gameplay" by Droqen on Saturday.

(Note: stream.place has the odd property that you log in to chat with your Bluesky account, which rules if you're on Bluesky but sucks if you're on Mastodon. I'm currently planning out a system for allowing Mastodon accts, but that won't be present for this stream.)

davidaugust ,
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@mcc did you build that steaming tool?

davidaugust ,
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@mcc very cool.

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Handy bilingual mnemonic for tool use. 🪛🔩

"Rightie tightie, leftie loosie" in Spanish is "la derecha oprime, la izquierda libera." [image of a screw with a curved arrow pointing to the left, another identical screw image with an arrow pointing to the right] Meaning: "the right oppresses, the left liberates."
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

🐈⚛️

screenshot of a post by geoffbaron and a reply: Schrödinger's border.. it is both completely secure. and there is an invasion Replies c_ttoos: Schrodinger's trans people: too strong for sports, too weak for the military
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

🐳✈️😲

screenshot of a post by Josh Rubin, MD @drsandman11.medsky.social: I don't mean to alarm anyone, but the orcas now have two F/A-18 Hornets May 7, 2025 at 8:20 AM
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Happy 80th Anniversary! 🎉

[upside down] “So much for the tolerant left.” [right side up] - Benito Mussolini April 28, 1945
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Transmission error.

A comic strip titled "Erreur de Transmission" with seven panels. The first panel shows a soldier landing on a beach holding a rifle. The second panel depicts two allied soldiers celebrating holding a n*zi flag with an American flag in the background. The third panel shows a soldier being happily welcomed home by a woman under a "Welcome" banner. The fouth panel features the soldier, now a civilian, setting the rolled up n*zi flag in the corner of a room with a boy with him. The fifth panel shows the boy from the fourth panel grown into a man with his own boy at a grave for his dad, the soldier. The sixth panel depicts the boy from the fifth panel, now a man, seeing the rolled up n*zi flag in the corner. The seventh panel shows the man from the sixth panel with a baby of his own. The n*zi flag is displayed on the house behind them, the man is barbecuing with a kkk on his shirt, an ss tattoo on his arm, and the baby is wearing a swastika arm band. Both man and baby are doing a n*zi salute. The comic is signed Flock-17.
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon at the ASU+GSV Summit, an event focusing on educational innovation largely on artificial intelligence in education, said, “A1” when apparently meaning AI multiple times.

variation on the “C’mon do something…” meme with the person character poking a bottle of A1 steak sauce with a stick and saying, “C’mon do an education…” as if the person were US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who in April 8, 2025 at the ASU+GSV Summit, an event focusing on educational innovation, a conference largely on artificial intelligence in education said, “A1” when apparently meaning AI multiple times
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davidaugust OP ,
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Linda McMahon calling AI A1: https://youtube.com/shorts/6QL0c5BbCR4

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

A nice post from facebook (Oliver Kornetzke):

I keep seeing these anxious posts bubbling up from the swamp of doom-scrolls, clutching their pearls about April 20th—the day, supposedly, when the Trump regime will dust off the Insurrection Act like a vintage bottle of fascism, smash it open on the table, and toast to martial law. Constitutional rights? Suspended. Civil liberties? Vaporized. America? Repackaged as a theocratic police state with a God complex and a meth addiction.

1/12

elon musk holding a chainsaw above his head, wearing sunglasses and smiling
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davidaugust OP ,
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And sure, the evidence pointing in that direction? Compelling. Chilling, even. But let’s not confuse “possible” with “inevitable,” and let’s certainly not confuse “dangerous” with “invincible.” This is not some fucking Marvel movie where the villain has a flawless plan. No, this is a clown car of egomaniacal sycophants with the strategic acumen of a toddler playing Risk while hopped up on Pixy Stix.

2/12

davidaugust OP ,
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They’re busy gutting their own institutions, firing people with triple-digit IQs, and turning the Pentagon into a goddamn golf club for grifters. This is not the Death Star. It’s a flaming dumpster strapped to a roller coaster with no brakes.

Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not saying it won’t be chaos. It will be. Hell on Earth with a Wi-Fi connection.

3/12

davidaugust OP ,
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But let’s not pretend this bloated, crumbling regime has the organizational prowess or ideological unity to maintain a long-term crackdown on 330 million people, many of whom are smart, pissed-off, and crazy enough to throw sand in the gears.

But here’s the meat of it—I’m not here to play Nostradamus in a dive bar. I don’t give a damn about “predicting” what flavor of fascism they’ll try to bottle next.

4/12

davidaugust OP ,
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What I am here for is to speak directly to those of you who see the bullshit, who smell the sulfur in the air, who feel the psychic tremor of something sick pulsing beneath the surface—and are asking: What the hell can we do?

Here’s my answer:
Don’t. Fucking. Comply.

You want to know what non-compliance looks like? It looks like whatever the hell you want it to look like. It’s not about heroism or martyrdom. It’s about being a magnificent, ungovernable pain in the ass.

5/12

davidaugust OP ,
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It’s about weaponizing inconvenience, absurdity, and joy against a system that demands fear and obedience.

Throw a wrench in the works—everywhere, all the time. Go limp when they try to arrest you. Laugh like a lunatic in the face of their solemn tyranny. Fill their inboxes with existential poetry or pictures of your morning post-coffee porcelain bowl masterpieces.

6/12

davidaugust OP ,
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Tape absurd messages in public places: “Authoritarianism gives you hemorrhoids.” Get petty. Get weird. Flush their toilet paper. Release crickets in inconvenient places. Spoil their scripts, trip their rhythm, yank the narrative from their hands.

Join a general strike. Practice…black cat sabotage—cut their supply chains not with violence but with broken protocol & creative disorder. Don’t show up. Don’t respond. Don’t cooperate. Don’t validate their authority with your silence.

7/12

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Genius move to lose $9 trillion of actual value to try to address a smaller trade deficit that isn’t an actual debt. 🤦‍♂️

screenshot of a post by News Eye @newseye.bsky.social: So far, Trump has lost $9 trillion in stock market value in an attempt to fix a $1.2 trillion trade deficit. It's not possible to fully articulate the stupidity currently governing the USA. [graphic of rectangles sized by capitalization and colored red indicating individual stock loses at a glance] April 6, 2025 at 2:45 PM
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Good sign.

Protest sign held up by a hand, it says, "they're eating the checks, they're eating the balances.”
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@evacide@hachyderm.io avatar evacide , to random

I see that there are people on the internet who would like to explain PGP to me and I am very tired.

davidaugust ,
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@evacide 😳 they don't get that you could teach classes about it?

davidaugust ,
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@evacide Yeah, that's cool you have done that.

And if they'd looked, even for a moment at your profile, they probably could have guessed that.

The internet is gonna internet, and by that I mean people be weird.

Keep on keeping on. You're awesome, they're weird.

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random
@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random

😳

A screenshot of a post on X by Junius (@piebyfour ), showing a reply by Elon Musk (@elonmusk ) to @elonmusk and @AntVenom : "Marx was a capitalist. He even wrote a book about it." Below, a post by Synexdoche (@amor_fatti , 15h ago) reads: "What are signs that a person genuinely is unintelligent?" Musk's account has a blue checkmark. Junius's profile picture features a stylized black-and-white illustration of a person, and Synexdoche's profile picture shows a dark circular image with a light streak.
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davidaugust ,
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

Time to see a picture of a goat perched on a capybara.

a small goat balancing on the head of a capybara that seems content in a park
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

screenshot of a post by Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social: People need to be crystal clear about something: The requirement that the government ANSWER to a court on the legal basis for detaining someone is literally the core liberty right (habeas corpus). If the government says they don't have to do that bc "national security," YOU can be disappeared. March 17, 2025 at 11:51 PM
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random
screenshot of a post by sepulchritude: one thing I don't think people realize is that in arguments about human rights, it's not about trying to persuade the other party. it's not about them at all. they've already made up their mind. it's about persuading the audience. if I call out my teacher on being homophobic l'm not trying to change his opinion. I'm trying to convince any closeted kids in the room that they're not the monsters he's made them out to be. if argue with my aunt about how racist she's being it's not because I expect to change her mind. it's because l'm hoping to god my cousin's kids hear and learn that maybe skin color doesn't mean what she says it means. people will try to hush you and say "they're not going to change their minds, don't bother" but it's not about them. it was never about them.
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

🌋🚨🧜‍♀️

"In this case of volcanic eruption, you will hear mermaids. Do not ignore the mermaids; they are there for your safety." [screenshot of a post by] ProfJenniBarclay @VolcanoJenni: Perils of Google Translate No. 44a. People seeking greater warning of volcanic eruption want sirens _not_ mermaids. (Spanish: Sirenas).
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davidaugust OP ,
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@lritter made me chuckle, nice. 😆

@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

A line chart titled "S&P 500 Indexed to Inauguration Day" with the x-axis labeled "Days from Inauguration Day" and the y-axis labeled "Index." The chart compares the performance of the S&P 500 during the early months of three presidential terms. A dark blue line represents Barack Obama's 2013 term, a light blue line represents Joe Biden's 2021 term, and a red line represents Donald Trump's 2025 term. The dark blue and light blue lines trend upward, while the red line trends downward. Each line ends with a circular image of the respective president. Obama's and Biden's images are placed at higher points on the chart, while Trump's image is placed lower.
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@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random
@davidaugust@mastodon.online avatar davidaugust , to random

“Hitler's Enabling Act (1933) let his cabinet bypass parliament while claiming to ‘save democracy.’

Yesterday's Executive Order lets White House control all independent agencies while claiming to ‘restore democracy.’

They're not even changing the playbook. It couldn't be more obvious but they're disguising it all in democratic language to fool lesser civically-minded citizens.

See the comparison below between yesterday's EO and The Enabling Act.”

via @pardonmycrumbs

[table that cannot be rendered as clearly in text only] 1933 Enabling Act vs 2025 Executive Order: Key Parallels Language and Justification 1933 Enabling Act "Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich"b "Streamlining government for efficiency" "Constitutional reform for the people" "Unified leadership" 2025 Executive Order "Restoring Democracy and Accountability" "Ensuring a Government that Answers to the People" "Restoring Constitutional governance" "Single President vested with executive power! Actual Effects 1933 Changes Centralized power in Chancellor's office Eliminated independent state powers Presented as temporary measure Used existing legal framework Claimed democratic legitimacy 2025 Changes Centralizes power in President's office Eliminates independent agency powers Presented as constitutional restoration Uses existing legal framework Claims democratic accountability
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@mcc@mastodon.social avatar mcc , to random

For the last two years I've been semi-daily posting "What I'm Listening to Today" links here. Mastodon has some problems with threads containing hundreds of posts, so I re-create the thread once a year.

If you'd like to see, here's my "year two" thread: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/110266770603341546

Or, alternately, every song from year two in the least practical format possible: A 301-song, 38-hour YouTube playlist (note: video #1 contains flashing):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLIjft6ja7DM_kacOW8zo2vtr-aWpTNX6

And here's the thread for "year three":

davidaugust ,
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@mcc that’s so cool!

davidaugust ,
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@mcc cool. Kinda of perfect for what you mentioned, that different feeling "cover" style song for a trailer.