This, from Ada Palmer as part of The Chronicle's survey of 11 scholars on the future of higher ed, is what I needed to end the week.

Once again.

I think if I'd gotten away with attempting a coup, suffered no consequences for it, then won an election four years later, got away with executing citizens in the streets and foreigners in boats, and successfully abducted a head of state, I too might think I could just bomb my way to regime change

Killing for peace in the Middle East has a long and successful history, amirite?

This aged well. Note the author.

“The victims were between seven and 12 years old, according to Iran's Tasnim and Fars news agencies.”

Well, that's fucked up. At least there's a new NIN release, TRON Ares: Divergence. youtu.be/h81CrYQFp0w?...

Oh are you fucking kidding me

I don't think Jamelle Bouie is transphobic at all, what are we doing?

respectfully tapping the "support billionaire-free, worker-owned, independent media" sign again

I don't know why this is so hard. Fighters win—we see that over and over, because often it's *not* about their politics! Trump was perceived as a fighter! The most effective way to reduce Trump as a foe is undermining his narrative as a tough guy... by fighting him.

The Washington Post's description of the bodycam video of his arrest last year, and the translation of Mr. Shah Alam's comments, is gutting. Remember, he was entirely blind in one eye and could only see three feet in the other, and he spoke virtually no English. He spent a year in jail for this.

Happy Friday!

"protecting children" here means protecting our control over everyone's children. once you see that, it all makes sense

1. very happy about this. exceptional use of power & the ability to consistently roll natural 20 charisma checks. 2. more of this, please! 3. i also know he’s capable of walking & chewing gum. 4. where we at on “holding private hospital systems denying GAC to account”?

If only we had a functioning FTC.

i am glad to be a trans person on hrt. being trans is awesome and incredible and anyone persecuting trans people is hell's own jackass. gender should be a playground not a prison camp with barbed wire around it

Stop pre-negotiating. Stop telling voters they have to sacrifice minorities and the marginalized to have a chance of winning. Stop telling voters to settle, to not ask for everything, to be reasonable. Don't be reasonable. Demand the world. The world belongs to us. They don't have more right to it.

They're going to lie about birth control just as they did with trans people.

12/x: I've also asserted that NYT's trans-hostile coverage of trans people in political contexts (as opposed to their sometimes dandy coverage of trans people in the arts) mirrors the "neutral language but biased sources" playbook of their anti-queer coverage

The Riley Gaines who once tied for fifth place and got all affronted when they only had the one trophy and she had to wait for a minute while they ordered out for another one and from that moment of resentment carved out a lucrative living on the reactionary-grifter gravy train? That Riley Gaines?

5 Takeaways from Trump's SOTU: 1) He sexually-assaulted E. Jean Carroll 2) He's been accused by over 20 women of sexual assault. 3) He's racist, having pushed the Obama-Birther BS. 4) He's terrible at business; filed for bankruptcy 6 times. 5) He was best friends with child rapist Jeffrey Epstein.

You’ve hear of dos-a-dos but have you seen….. DOS-DOS-A-DOS-A-DOS?!

“This message is brought to you tonight by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is solely responsible for its content.”

I'm so fucking furious most days. I know of families with trans kids that have moved. I sometimes have to explain to people that there are only a handful of states where it's safe (for now) for my child to attend university next year.

Jeffries and Schumer never hit back against a bully. They are cowards through and through.

This is the other thing. If you talk to trans people, regret at not transitioning earlier is almost universal. Meanwhile, no one has been able to produce any evidence of kids being rushed into premature or inappropriate transitions beyond anecdata connected to right wing activism.

Singal describes himself as “left of center,” a deceptive application of the phrase. It’s a growing a trend among anti-trans bigots trying to distance themselves from the conservatives’ evermore tarnished image Wait to you see who’s next among the transphobic extremists saying oh no, we’re liberal!

There have always been horrifically anti-trans groups and individuals. Few have done more, though, to launder their hate into “respectable” conversations than Jess Singal. No publications have done more to help that along than The Atlantic and The New York Times.

love when democrats talk about kitchen table issues as if trans people and immigrants don’t have kitchen tables 🙃

Six years ago today, Ahmaud Arbery was killed while out for a run in Brunswick, Georgia. He was 25 years old. It took 74 days — and a viral video — before arrests were made. He should still be here. His life mattered beyond the headlines. We remember Ahmaud Arbery. (📷: Atlanta News First)

One of the things I love about Gen Z is how they take all the little millennial snark sayings seriously. We said “hang it in the louvre” for two decades and they said “bet”

I'm stoked that the Humble Bundle of my and @annaleen.bsky.social's books from Tor has raised nearly $5000 for the TGI Justice Project and Miss Major/Alexander Lee Black Trans Cultural Center. www.humblebundle.com/books/charli... Let me tell you about when I went to the TGIJP's anniversary party

american women's hockey team continuing to show they are amazing. bsky.app/profile/bria...

In the video of Trump talking to the US men's hockey team, when he says "I must tell you, we're going to have to bring the women's team, you do know that" as a joke about how annoying it is to have women around, the most painful part for me, are all the hockey players laughing. Actually laughing.

Great thing to finally decide now that AI is about 1/3rd of the S&P

Is there a good breakdown that illustrates how every AI ceo is a pro eugenics wackjob?

Right, this is how right-wing media capture plays out at the nyt. The direction is set from the top: -An unprincipled race provocateur is treated gently. -Trans ppl, as an entire class, are treated w contempt.

So it seems the NYTimes did another "Handsome Man of Fascism" profile?

My other unpopular opinion is that gambling and sports betting are not at all like opioid use. Hundreds of people are still overdosing every day. Reporting in certain parts of the country is difficult because people overdose and die before I (and others) can reach them. That is what it looks like!

Hard to pick a favorite part of this video, but these two young women landing punches *at the same time* on the head of the old guy who had their friend in a chokehold was pretty solid.

I don’t mock anybody as fiercely and unrepentantly as I mock people driving this thing. I point. I laugh. I gun my (superior) engine. I don’t let them into traffic. I don’t let them pass on the right or the left. I will out my car back into park rather than give them next for a parking space.

Unions don't just benefit their members, they are a source of countervailing power against elites who want to control our political economy more generally.

Maybe Gorsuch could have thought about that before casting his vote for presidential immunity.

Epstein was invited to these events because these men (or the lobbyist handlers they've ceded control to) felt that pedophilia and rape and trafficking were not dealbreakers. That the ends justified the means. And those ends were not to help Americans. Not EVER! But to steal from us.

I appreciate all of these detailed analysis of what’s wrong with the policy, but the crucial thing to keep in mind here is that Donald Trump sincerely, literally does not understand what a tariff is and when that is your starting point, nothing beyond it really matters.

It is very troubling that the insane elderly person babbling on my TV right now is in charge of this country.

precisely 10 years ago today, the concept of "transgender social contagion" was first invented on the now infamous anti-trans parent website 4thWaveNow. a full timeline of how the concept spread (not unlike a "social contagion") can be found here: juliaserano.blogspot.com/2019/02/orig...

Does the DHHS now have shirtless Fridays at the office?

the lesson of the pandemic lockdowns should have been "the only people important to the functioning of society are the workers who actually do things" if every rich asshole on earth vanished in a puff of smoke tomorrow, nobody would notice or care