You’re probably familiar with the Andrews Sisters, or at least their music, but did you know that Maxine Andrews was a lesbian who had to adopt her partner in order to protect the legal status of their relationship?
Welcome back to Jester Queers. My name’s Amanda, and I’m a public historian of queer history. I could do an entire video series about Laverne, Maxine, and Patty Andrews, the daughters of immigrants who grew up in a Minneapolis neighborhood called Near North and then went on to sell a hundred million records, have more Billboard Top 10 hits than either Elvis or The Beatles, have one of the most successful collaborations in musical history with Bing Crosby, have guest appearances on every major radio and TV show from 1935 to 1967, and star in more Hollywood films than any other singing group in American history.
revmagdalen.bsky.social: “I hope someday we defeat fascism and in the far future, No Kings Day is celebrated as a federal holiday, and little children leave out dance mixtapes and cookies for the Resistance Frog, who leaves pocket Constitutions in their shoes.”
“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the figh because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.”
Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day, The war against giant frog costumes:
President Donald Trump is desperate for an enemy to justify the extreme force he wants to deploy on blue states and is trying his hardest to convince people that antifa is so dangerous that, as Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the roundtable this week, they need to be exterminated like ISIS or Hamas. The Trump administration also has a nearly pathological habit of accusing their enemies of being exactly like them. Which is why they think the left is a dark money-funded domestic terror cell full of pedophiles and spree shooters that wants to destroy America.
[Jack] Posobiec, an influencer who never ascended to Kirk’s level because he just can’t stop going full Nazi, said at the roundtable, ‘Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany.’ What happened to antifa after that, Jack?
Kids in the Hall:
A: Hu’s on first?
B: Yes.
A: Hu?
B: Yes.
A: Hu’s the man on first base?
B: Why are you asking me? I’m asking you!
A: Watt’s the name of the guy on first base?
B: No, no. What is on… Oh, I see what your problem is. You’re confused by their names because they all sound like questions.
A: I don’t know. Third base.
“The reason you ghost your friends, avoid responding, and disappear even when you care is because your nervous system sees connection as a demand, not a comfort. You’re not a bad friend, youw’re overwhelmed. If responding feels like a chore, maybe this account is for you.”
Thank you for your letter and for your enclosures. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one’s own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel bigotry, compulsive violence, and the sadistic persecution which has characterised the philosophy and practice of fascism. I feel obliged to say that the emotional universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from association between us. I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in human experience and human achievement.
BlackRedGuard: I worked in homeless shelters. None of the older folks thought they’d end up living there when they were young. In 1996 the dude you see pushing a cart down the street was driving a truck and making hella money. In 1989 the lady passed out on the bench under a garbage bag was hanging out at the club and living her best life. In 1985 the old dude yelling to himself on the corner was chilling on a beach in Mexico on spring break, he has a degree in Chemistry. Everybody comes from somewhere and has had a life.
Anaïs Nin: “I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me - the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art.”
Jim Wright: When this is over, we need to seriously implement Nuremberg-style trials.
And I’m not talking just the obvious fascism, but the lunacy that just ended research into mRNA protocols that could have cured Alzheimer’s. Along with a number of cancers and many, many infectious diseases. This is more than criminal, it’s crime against all of humanity. It’s crime against the future.
You have no idea how much I despise what this political party and their miserable ideology have become.
atrupar: The near daily barrage of deadly mass shootings in America feels like low level warfare against normal citizens who just want to live in peace. And because people keep electing Republicans who won’t do anything about it there’s no solution in sight.
MichelleKinney: Exactly. There’s this vibrating hum beneath the surface of all of our lives now. Mass shootings, political violence, fascism. Trump fuels it, Republicans are accomplices. It’s really no wonder so many of us ponder if we can even plan for a future in a country we love — but no longer recognize.
Pope Leo 14: Someone who says I’m against abortion but says I’m in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. So someone who says that I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life. So they’re very complex issues. I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them, but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another and that we search together both as human beings, in that case as American citizens or citizens of the state of Illinois."
Retired U.S. Army Maj. General Paul Eaton:Trust me when I tell you the last thing those Admirals + Generals wanted was to be flown across multiple time zones to be lectured on what it means to be a warrior by a former PT TV Host who had to promise to stop drinking to get the job. Then have a 5-time Draft Dodger bereft of any honor as a man tell them the American people are the enemy within.
USAID’s acting executive secretary Erica Carr:Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.
_
Do you know this melody? It’s emblasted in stadiums, clubs and festivals for over two decades. But it didn’t start on the dance floor. It started in a video game. In 1984, a Commodore 64 game called Lazy Jones featured a chiptune track called “Stardust”, written by David Wittaker. That 8-bit melody was catchy but forgotten. Until 1999, when general producer Zombination took it, tracked it up and dropped Can’t Cuff Your Hone. Heavy bass, punching drums and the result? A rave anthem with video game DNA. It ran from underground clubs to global fame. What started as pixie music turned into one of the most iconic tracks in electronic history. From Commodore to stadiums, that’s the power of a melody._
“A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of the sentence is surprising in a way that causes the reader/listener to reframe the first part of the sentence.”
“Part of how they make you obey is by making obedience seem peaceful, while resistance is violent. But really, either choice is about violence, one way or another.” - Mouth, “Rock Manning Goes for Broke” (Charlie Jean Anders)
In Texas, it looks like fall before it feels like fall. To scramble a line from Sylvia Plath’s journal, the worst of the summer is gone, with “the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” Virginia Woolf said it well in a letter: “I feel entirely dehumanized by the sun now and wish for fog, snow, rain, humanity.” None of that is coming until at least Halloween down here, so we must settle for what C.S. Lewis in Surprised By Joy called “the idea of Autumn.”
“Sometimes I wonder what it feels like to live instead of just survive. To wake up and not already feel behind. To breathe without the pressure of yesterday. To exist without the constant fear of what might go wrong. I don’t want a perfect life. 1 just want a break from survival mode. A day where life feels calm, and 1 don’t have to fight so hard to feel peace.”
Patricia Lockwood, Will There Ever Be Another You: “But the soul is a floor. It is there to bear us up and keep us standing, not merely to be clean.”
You know what’s underrated? Letting people be. Letting them mispronounce a word, talk too much about a show they love, or get excited about something you don’t understand. You don’t have to get it, just be kind. Everyone’s got something that lights them up. Let them shine, even if it’s not your thing.
Adam Savage:
There’s an attempt within some circles to weaponize the word empathy as some sort of wrong-headed over merging with someone else’s reality. I haven’t investigated it enough to really explain it because I don’t care, because I think it’s wrong. Oh yeah, sure, that makes me unscientific. Listen. Everything good I have in my life is because of empathy and kindness and respect. Everything good I have ever achieved, everything that I have around me, is all because of that. I’m a believer in believing everywhere you go better than you left it. And that means thinking about others a lot. A lot more than you might even be used to, and trying to figure out how to not mess with their reality too much, keep yourself self-contained. But I have done a lot of talks over the years for young people asking questions about getting started, finding their aesthetic, finding a job, knowing when it’s the right career, etc. And I like to point out that the skill to build is to be easy to work with. I banged on about this a lot over the years, but I have seen people who were mediocre at best at their jobs last for almost a decade in a job when there certainly were more qualified people one could hire, but the people in those jobs were so easy to work with and such a facile part of the team that it made sense. And even if you are venal and want all the money, which is fine, even if money is the important thing to you, go earn it. I really like more power to you. But you don’t… Even if you want all the dough, being, I swear to me, being kind, empathetic, and respectful of everybody is the best way to move through the world."
jayalaw: We have lived in too many interesting times; I wish you a 2025 that has boring news, filled with good luck, brimming with windfalls and flush with kindness.
Jon Stewart: “The threat to comedy, comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether. We’re the banana peel in the coal mine. When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It’s just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress, to all those things. It’s never been. All that s*** is a red herring. It ain’t the pronoun police, it’s the secret police. It always has been and it always will be. And this man’s decapitated visage is a reminder to all of us that what we have is fragile and precious. And the way to guard against it isn’t to change how audiences think. It’s to change how leaders lead.”
He-Man (from a December 1, 1983 episode!): “Today we met Nepthu, a man who wanted to become a leader, and became one. But Nepthu used his leadership for his own selfish glory and in the end he got what he deserved. Being a good leader takes a lot of responsibility. But you must also be responsible when you follow a leader. Don’t do something wrong or dangerous because someone tells you to. Think before you act. We can’t all be leaders, but we can all choose what’s right and wrong for ourselves.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell to FCC Chair: “So I want to make it clear, there’s going to be a Democratic majority in just over a year. And to the FCC chairperson and anyone involved in these dirty deals, get a lawyer and save your records because you’re going to be in this room and you’re going to be answering questions about the deals that you struck and who benefited and what the cost was to the American people because that happened.”
The best description I’ve recently heard for our collective emotional state comes from Danish anthropologist Christian Madsbjerg, who — in an interview with the Time Sensitive podcast — calls it directionless panic.
“It’s a little bit like a horse that’s stung by a wasp. It’s moving all over, but it doesn’t really know why.”
sharonk.bsky.social:Korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in. Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025.
mollyjongfast.bsky.social:This story feels like it’s going to have huge repercussions.
Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Disdain for the importance of human rights.
Identification of enemies / scapegoats as a unifying cause.
Supremacy of the military / avid militarism.
Rampant sexism.
Controlled mass media.
Obsession with national security.
Religion and ruling elite intertwined.
Corporate power protected.
Labor power suppressed or eliminated.
Disdain for and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
Obsession with crime and punishment.
Rampant cronyism and corruption.
Fraudulent elections.
“The best description I’’ve recently heard for our collective emotional state comes from Danish anthropologist Christian Madsbjerg, who […] calls it directionless panic: ‘It’s a little bit like a horse that’s stung by a wasp. It’s moving all over, but it doesn’t really know why.’”
JRR Jokien: Pippin to Frodo when they’re back home in the Shire: “gonna confess i’m still not sure what the ring from lord of the rings actually did except make you invisible and angry” [AmazingPhil]
Tom Morello: I’d like to thank all the 2nd Amendment loving patriots who are caravanning towards Chicago right now to defend the people against a Tyrannical Federal Government that has declared war on a U.S. city!! Thank you for putting aside the racism & white supremacy that has kept you from stepping up until now! Big Government Thugs wanna “tread on” the people! Now’s your time to stop them. Like you talk about.
jordanmooney: It will cost the taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars to update 700,000 DOD facilities across 40 countries and all 50 states with the new “Department of War” logo. But please MAGA, tell me more how cancer research is wasteful spending.
celadonsage: Imagine if all that money was actually spent on veterans, serving members of the military, their families, and updating military facilities that are literally falling down.
A Cockroach Moment
SAM (FALCON): Whelp, here we are. Happy birthday, Steve.
STEVE (CAPT. AMERICA): Thanks, Sam. Though I’d hoped it would be under happier circumstances. And yet, here we are. Trump unequivocally elected.
SAM: A conservative Supreme Court locking in executive power and conservative values.
STEVE: Cuts to health care access and vaccines.
SAM: Rollbacks to climate policy, manufacturing jobs, social safety net.
STEVE: ICE as a growing extralegal police.
damnslippy.slippy.me: “Sincerely delighted to discover, 45 minutes into this nearly-wordless three-hour documentary about French monks who take vows of silence, that among the reasons they can talk is ’to make sure the monastery cats know when it’s mealtime by making little kitty-calling noises at them.'”
Matt Damon: So, what happened was the DVD was a huge part of our business, of our revenue stream, and technology has just made that obsolete.
And so, the movies that we used to make, you could afford to not make all of your money when it played in the theater, because you knew you had the DVD coming behind the release. And six months later, you’d get a whole other chunk. It would be like reopening the movie almost.
And when that went away, that changed the type of movies that we could make.
I did this movie, Behind the Candelabra, and I talked to a studio executive who explained it was a $25 million movie. I would have to put that much into print now. Advertising right to market it—we call P&A—so I’d have to put that in P&A. So now I’m in $50 million.
I have to split everything I get with the exhibitor, right? The people who own the movie theaters. So I would have to make $100 million before I got into profit.
And the idea of making $100 million on a story about, like, this love affair between these two people—yeah, I love everyone in the movie—that’s suddenly a massive gamble in a way that it wasn’t in the 1990s, when they were making all those kind of movies. The kind of movies that I loved, and the kind of movies that were my bread and butter.