That feeling when you're watching a comedic summary of how dysfunctional the Senate was in early Imperial Rome, and it sounds very very familiar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBfW...

The only slightly optimistic take I can come up with for what's happening right now, is that the combination of Mamdani's ascent - directly in spite of the D establishment's wishes - and the D establishment's clear demonstration of their inability to fight, might lead to a 3rd party renaissance.

John Fetterman looks like something the Flintstones would use to cut grass.

Man, it's probably a pipe dream - not that last night's results wouldn't have been described as such half a year ago - but I'd love it if Mayor Mamdani set in motion the first arrests and actual prosecutions of ICE agents.

Dick Cheney died doing what he loved most- ending a human life

Good that Cheney didn't live long enough to have his selfish, murderous mind downloaded into some kind of robot.

The economic downturn must be slamming the fashion model industry harder than anyone is reporting. Maybe if male supermodels could get jobs, they wouldn't be out here killing healthcare CEOs and robbing the Louvre.

you could not waterboard this out of me. “we didn’t understand why people use steam”

Accidental lore-accurate Aspect of Nergal (Apollo for his sun association, Ares for war, Hera for his 'marriage' to Erishkegal) was hilariously over-tuned. Was actually cackling out loud while caveman-bonking the forces of Chronos into oblivion.

"If the working-class masses have no right to land, food, housing, education, healthcare, and the basic comforts that centuries of our labor created, then the capitalist class has no right to peace. "It's really as simple as that." — @hamptonthink.bsky.social

Black farmers have always gotten shafted in this country. I feel his rage 🔥🔥🔥

Armies funded by the private wealth of consuls and generals is arguably one of the main factors that allowed Augustus to consolidate imperial power - that, and a completely neutered Senate.

The way Hades II depicts Medea as the archetypical gleefully-morbid necromancer doesn't really jive with her history as a wrathful, tragic figure - both a victim of the gods meddling (*looks at Aphrodite*) and an instrument of their appalling retribution. Honestly, my only complaint with Hades II.

Human artists!? Use one piece to convince people to follow you !

Chris Murphy: "This is a country that's falling apart because Trump is in the middle of an authoritarian takeover. We're not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We're in the middle of it ... I have no moral obligation to vote for a budget that literally funds the destruction of our democracy"

I love how much easy-to-miss research went into #Hades I & II. Dio and Zag pulling a prank on Orpheus to help explain the early, esoteric confusion/syncretic connection between Orphic Dionysus and Zagreus? The fact that Melinoë - the chthonic nymph of nightmares - contacts Zag via dreams?

It would be nice to live in a time when events leading up to the Spanish Civil War, the fall of the Roman Republic, and the French Revolution didn't resonate so strongly with current events. At least future historians will be writing dissertations about the Portland Frog.

It’s amazing how all the reporting is just memory-holing this part

sherman, for the love of god!

I'm sure her reasons for bucking Johnson right now are either selfish or bizarre, but if MT-fucking-G ends up leading the Repub revolt against Trump, I think we will need to just...give up on trying to predict anything political in the US for the next like, 10 years.

I'd like to formally object to the idea and practice of calling Shitler by any nickname related to yams - most commonly, Yam Tits. Yams are thick-skinned, white on the inside, are mostly grown in: Africa, Central America, and South America. Also, yams are fucking delicious.

Who wants to bed that the new swastikar ends up being just...a triangle with wheels? Like, a mobile metal doorstop.

We can’t out-Republican Republicans, nor should we want to. Democrats need to say what they believe — and actually believe in something. @mehdirhasan.bsky.social

I feel like Ghost of Yotei begs to be compared to Blue Eye Samurai, and in begging that comparison does an excellent job of highlighting how societal norms can change drastically over the course of 50ish years. Both stories feature a lone onna-musha seeking vengeance, and both are deemed onryo.

the GOP nuking the filibuster to end this shutdown is the best case scenario if we want a chance at fixing any of this shit we're going to have to get rid of it, better to let them do it themselves rather than worry about Fetterman pulling a Joe Manchin

New in PN: Lessons from a Red Scare "As Emma Goldman hoped, and Louis Post later demonstrated, the American people are capable of turning the tide against repression — even if that effort feels hopeless in the moment."

Interesting little discovery I made while conducting research for a story: It's theorized that the name Humbert is derived from Old Germanic/PIE words Hun (warrior/bear cub) and Beraht (bright/famous) - Beraht is very similar to Berhan, a Ge'ez word/name meaning the same.

So, at the end of Act 2 of #PoE2, it's established - for all 2 people who didn't guess well before then - that the Hooded One is Sin from PoE1. Sin reaffirms that he was the one who created the Beast and the Seed of Corruption from which it grew. Act 4 Sin: Who made the Seed? We may never know.

New definition of playing with fire: flying all the top military brass to a meeting in order to insult them for ~40 mins, then turning around and jeopardizing the pay of their enlisted soldiers by letting the government shut down. I doubt this will result in any desirable outcomes.

Just spitballing here, but wouldn't it make sense for the seats on the Supreme Court to be rotational - a cadre picked at random from the entire Federal Appellate bench, every X years? Give the lower courts the ability to impeach sitting SC justices. Maybe you'd get one or two hacks, but not 6.

You guys do yourself a favor and look at what Eric Adams wore to Rosh Hashanah services at the Sephardic Lebanese Congregation

This is great. I also think we need this kind of effort and conversation in cities with those consuming left-leaning information. This is Bluesky and I know no one wants to hear this but...a lot of people's views are OFF and they don't know it or want to hear it. 😬 We can all do better.

Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.

To me, here's what's so mind-boggling about the Disney situation: We've seen this movie before. Trump made demands, and those universities that caved were faced with more demands. They didn't reap a sudden bumper crop of young conservatives eager to enroll - they didn't benefit in any way.

"They're politicians, what are they supposed to do? Literally fight in the streets?" Unashamed to say this made me cry.

It'd be funny if Kier Starmer was secretly playing a long, long con - pretending to be a racist, useless, centrist stooge to lull Shitler into a false sense of security, only to bundle him off to the ICC the moment he sets foot in 10 Downing. Not going to happen, but it's fun to think about.

"Sir, this is a [HOWLING OF MILLIONS OF DEMONS OF HELL]."

This is the line that Dems need to push. It can't be simply. "Political violence is bad" it MUST be "Political violence is bad and Trump and his ilk are responsible for creating conditions ripe for political violence"

damn that's so crazy. picture unrelated

My hot take for the day: the bicameral legislature of the US is a relic of (among other things) a time when distance, and a lack of free time and education, prevented the average citizen from participating meaningfully in governance. At *least* two of those obstacles have been overcome. (1)

OMG YOU'RE DRIZZT DO'URDEN!!

Pretty sure the dev meeting where GGG cooked up Zolin and Zelena went something like this: Dev 1: So you know how we hate minion builds? Dev 2: Go on. Dev 1: What if Zelena leeched 5000% of minion life on hit, and what if Zolin could heal himself off Zelena's corpse? Dev 2: Brilliant!

Impeachment of certain justices and/or expansion of the Supreme Court should be part of every left-leaning Congressperson's 2026 campaign. I know it won't be, but it really - really - should be.

Really digging Act IV of #PoE2 so far. The new environments and enemies are fresh and thematically appropriate, and the whole island exploration mechanic seems like a better-thought-out, better-executed iteration on the Act II caravan mechanic. (1)

Can't find a single thing wrong with this...

National Guardsmen now stationed outside our DC building confirmed that the only thing they can do if they witness a crime is call 911. The have no more authority than my office mate to intervene. Despite the handcuffs, they can't make arrests. They are very expensive mall cops.