an extraordinary person with an extraordinary legacy who nevertheless didn’t take herself too seriously when Gary Larson published this cartoon, she was in Africa and her institute was horribly offended and drafted a complaint the whole thing was defused when she returned - she found it funny

I’m sorry to see her go, but what a life.

I see we’re doing “why don’t people talk about Saudi Arabia like they talk about Israel?!?” discourse and please let me tell you: they do. In both the “racist fire and brimstone hyperbole” and the “ludicrous excuses for obvious crimes” directions. If you have not seen this I am happy for you.

It is sort of mind boggling how the science news of the last year or so has been software engineers saying “we’ve upgraded the torment nexus that might tear apart society to be 10% more efficient” while bio/pharma has been “we’re about to cure this disease that has plagued humanity for millenial

the top post is factually incorrect and this is a great microcosm of “why you should not reed erin” the fiscal year appropriations bill is not currently under negotiation lawmakers are only negotiating the short term CR then moving to approps if you’re going to cover congress, learn how it works

Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher. Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.

Look I am not immune to the power of a good monologue.

I respect a good bit of "shining lamp of liberty" rhetorical thundering, and this is a pretty remarkable example

Truly a fascinating cocktail. So many flavors of total immorality. (Sell your soul to a state that enslaves and oppresses half its population & took the lead in killing millions in Yemen. Dismiss your own father’s murder as a triviality. Throw in some casual racism/Islamophobia. All so brave.)

after reading his article and the dialogue with Coates, I’m convinced if faced with the Trolley Problem Ezra Klein would condemn railroad switches

he’s going to issue an executive order about AO3 pairings any day now

All I'll say is that Portugal's 40yr fascist dictatorship was overthrown when a bunch of junior military officers got fucking fed up with colonial war and concentration camps, launched a peaceful coup beneath the noses of the oblivious regime, then held free elections LIBERATION IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE

I’m sorry to link the Post but I can’t stop thinking about rat accents

It's broadly speaking surprising to me that Tony Blair can walk streets unbattered

hi, cis folks! trans people need your help! the FY26 budget gets a vote by 9/30. GOP wants a ban on funds for ALL health services that provide trans care for ANY AGE. they're trying for other bans, too. we need you to call senators like chuck who don't get it: reps.fyi info & script in the🧵⬇️

I need to get off fucking line is what I need.

Watch "Sacred Planet" with Uprooter Gulnaz Khan, a three-part docuseries that explores how climate change is impacting sacred places around the world. Now on @pbs.org! www.pbs.org/show/sacred-...

Molly Ivins:

Stephen Miller is a school shooter who took control of a country instead

First time this guy has ever made me laugh

This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.

Another Kavanaugh stop.

Ppl are going to twist this into an anti-Mamdani stance when their logic is actually quite liturgically sound: Yom Kippur is the most sacred day of the year for Jews, a day of deep introspection and harrowing personal confrontation. Political campaigning would be unwelcome and inappropriate.

it's over, i've already depicted you as weak anti-New Deal bankers and me as the Chad FDR

more birdsong for you sick freaks

so many birds, one stone

we should take away all their money so they can’t do this

As long as we're talking about reaching the unreachable voters man jeffries could've just been like "eric adams is a stone cold LOSER who's quitting like a DOG, vote MAMDANI" and actually turned some heads

79. American citizen.

my family has always said it pensée en la inevitabilidad del cangrejo, and i truly believe it's better the way we say it

Amidst nice words and failed promises, heat still kills California farmworkers www.sanluisobispo.com/opinion/opn-...

Begging people to stop making shit up in the name of anti-Zionism.

This is also why, btw, i think that "touch the stove" type stuff comes from a place of exasperation at this deeply broken dynamic. That maybe instead of Ds constantly rescuing everyone, R voters need to experience the consequence of the R policies they vote for in order to to break this cycle.

Got my performance review.

Mom at the park just told me she wasn’t going to finish her baby’s vaccine schedule because “of the new information that has come out from the CDC”. Robert Kennedy is a fucking monster.

This book is fantastic and you can read it in an afternoon. It performs an interesting veer from wry satire of the British upper class to something more plot-driven and melancholy, but it’s really very good.

The watcher. One of a pack of coyotes I met the other morning while out on the kayak. This one kept a close eye on me from it perch on the cliffs. #mammals 🌿

the beating heart of MAGA: an alcoholic sex creep reality TV guy who now runs the military whining and sniveling that people don't respect mass murderers enough

"This should be understood not as a one-off of a bad actor who might have flouted our laws, but really as a problem that is at the core of the Department of Correction and their relationship with ICE." hellgatenyc.com/illegally-ha...

The thing about the constant surveillance of everyone by everyone, together with the age of mass incarceration, is that it really prevents people from going full Fuenteovejuna on some things.

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

My way of coping with all of the madness is focusing on what I can do to make my community a little bit stronger. So excuse me for all of the earnestness, but I wrote about ways we can all pitch in to support a thriving literary culture. lithub.com/how-to-be-a-...

They need to have a party at the Natural History Museum, right away!

BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the University of South Dakota to reinstate a professor who posted criticism of Charlie Kirk on his Facebook page the day of the shooting, finding the action likely violated the First Amendment. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Speaking of pull-to-publish — I have said before and will say again that that is so obviously Supergirl fanfic (no powers AU)

I do kind of want to say that everyone currently steaming about the fanfic invasion of SFF owes me book reports about three contemporary reads they did like which weren’t written by them or someone they like personally but I’m not the boss of anyone.

My dentist uses an AI receptionist and it’s all I can do not to scream at it every single time.

Anyway as I understand it traditional publishing is struggling and you can decry the fact that they don’t publish what you want to read, but publish writing they know people already like would seem to be a symptom, rather than a cause. Again, I can only recommend touting the stuff you *do* like.

Went offline for one day of Rosh Hashanah, came back and can’t find my “the rats are winning” image.

Shanah Tovah, New York City. Here's to a sweet and hopeful New Year.