Links
Friday, May 23
Wednesday, May 14
🔗 When Kittens Came to My Prison, I Had Not Petted One in 15 Years
Pope Leo XIV’s brother scorches trans people, female politicians and anti-Trump Democrats online 🔗
Saturday, May 10
Friday, May 9
Treadwells Bookshop: May you live in boring times. Like, the dullest times ever. May you drink cups of tea watching clouds of ambient sheep float across pastoral landscapes awash with pale sunlight. The pears in the orchard are slowly ripening. You haven’t watched the news in seven years.
Anne Frank, 1943-01-13: “Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”
Grandmaster Trash: It’s fine for guys to refer to women as ‘females,’ but its also fine to follow those guys and narrate their lives like a nature doc: ‘The male opens the fridge and sighs.’ ‘The male turns around to see who’s narrating him.’ ‘Scared and unfuckable, the male retreats to his chambers.’
Joe Katz: File impeachment articles that are just direct quotes from the Declaration of Independence: “for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of jury trial; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
RBReich: History teaches us that the way to stand up to a dictator is to fight back against him, not capitulate to him. Surrendering to tyranny invites more of it. This moment we’re in should not be met with a “moderate” response. Democrats desperately need to learn this lesson.
James Cameron: “The Terminator films are not really about the human race getting kiiled off by future machines. They’re about us losing touch with our own humanity and becoming machines, which allows us to kiil and brutalise each other. Cops think of all non-cops as less than they are, stupid, weak and evil. They dehumanise the people they are sworn to protect and desensitise themselves in order to do that job.”
Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs: “Problem-solving is hunting; it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.”
Carlee Gomez, The Puritanical Eye: The desire to exclusively engage with media and art made by ‘unproblematic’ artists is a direct result of Americans viewing media consumption as an inherently political act be- cause that is the supreme promise of Western prosperity and the religion of consumeri- sm, and because it’s seemingly all that’s left. We’ve been stripped and socialized out of any real political energy and agency. Our ability to consume is the only thing remaining that’s “ours” in late capitalism, and as a result it’s become a stand-in for (or perhaps the sole defining quality of) every aspect of being alive today – consuming is activism, it’s love, it’s thinking, it’s sex, it’s fill in the blank. When the act of consuming is all you have left and indeed the only thing society tells you is valuable and meaningful, the act must necessarily be a moral one, which is why people send themselves down manic spirals deciding what, who is “problematic” or not, because for us the stakes are that high now.
“Never forget and never forgive the people who voted for him. They did this to us, and they must carry the shame and failure for the rest of their lives. Shun them. Make them pay. Never forget what they did.”
Susie Dent: “Word of the day is ‘forswunk’ (13th century): exhausted from too much work. I like to think that ‘foreswunk’ is to be exhausted before you even begin. Word of the Day is ‘apricate’ (17th century): to turn your face to the sun and bask in its warmth.”
Resmaa Menakem: Trauma in a person decontextualized over time can look like personality. Trauma in a family decontextualized over time can look like family traits. Trauma decontextualized in a people over time can look like culture, and it takes time to slow it down.
Montaigne: It is easier to sacrifice great than little things.
‘Game Changer’ Is a Fun and Unpredictable Game Show
@peoplefor: The Trump administration is defunding the suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth […] The hotline has received 1.3 million calls and texts since 2022.
CNN: “The Trump administration has dismissed all the scientists and other authors working on the next authoritative look at how climate change is affecting the United States.” “Losing this report makes us less prepared for extreme weather, wildfire, sea level rise and other important changes we face on a warming planet.”
Trump, Asked if He Has to ‘Uphold the Constitution,’ Says, ‘I Don’t Know’
Wednesday, May 7
Liberty Hotel Security guard confronts woman in bathroom, asks her to prove gender 🔗
Monday, May 5
Memorial to people killed by gun violence is removed from ATF headquarters 🔗
Man Bitten by 200 Snakes Helps Scientists Create a Super Antivenom 🔗
Trump Administration Considers Pulling CBS Broadcasting License 🔗
Saturday, May 3
RFK Jr. Falsely Claims Measles Vaccine Contains ‘Fetus Debris’ 🔗
Friday, May 2
Tuesday, April 22
Corgis go head-to-head in race celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s favourite dog breed
“Among the new [Chicago Teachers Union] provisions are gender-affirming health care for staff, a trained Gender Support Coordinator in every school, codified protections for chosen names and pronouns, and a mandate that every school upholds inclusive curriculum standards and supports student-led Gender and Sexuality Alliances. The message from educators is simple: every student deserves to feel safe, seen, and supported — no matter what extremists in Washington, D.C., or state capitals may say.” (link)
“Among the new [Chicago Teachers Union] provisions are gender-affirming health care for staff, a trained Gender Support Coordinator in every school, codified protections for chosen names and pronouns, and a mandate that every school upholds inclusive curriculum standards and supports student-led Gender and Sexuality Alliances. The message from educators is simple: every student deserves to feel safe, seen, and supported — no matter what extremists in Washington, D.C., or state capitals may say.” (link)
Sunday, April 20
Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society
Wednesday, April 9
Trump Defunds School Lunches In Maine Over Transgender People
University of Cincinnati removes ‘biological’ bathroom signs
Wednesday, March 26
Paul Krugman: “The answer is ‘yes.’ These people are both incompetent and evil.”
Tuesday, March 25
Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1 Lunar Landing (Official NASA Broadcast)
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s Showstopping Oscars Opening Performance