Let's see if the internet (and Bluesky in particular) can help solve this mystery. Who can help Ben find "Linda" who appears to be from the UK but traveled to Moscow in 1984 and wrote (but did not send?) this postcard?

I have been threatening you all with this piece for a while now, and it's here! The folks at Heat Death have very kindly given me space to talk about one of the things that I find most fascinating about this genre; the way in which we unconsciously treat it as if it's "true" in a Platonic sense.

vaccines are truly one of the most incredible things in all of human history. we founds ways to literally defeat communicable deadly diseases at almost no cost & at no harm to ourselves and a guy whose brain was literally partially eaten by a worm is working to undermine that and get people killed

Can’t believe the whole country has to suffer through the return of Dickensian childhood diseases because the worst, most ignorant attention-demanders decided other people’s expertise makes them feel bad

Alberta just introduced Bill 9, which exists for one and only one purpose: deleting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it pertains to trans kids, denying them the right to life and stripping their healthcare away. This is cruel, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: normal adults (who aren't pediatric medical professionals) don't spend ANY amount of time thinking about the genitals of children. They certainly don't bend over backwards to make policing children's genitals part of their job. This obsession is creepy.

Remember, everyone. When the Gestapo comes to town, be ready to alert others to their presence, to record their abuses, and to exercise your 1A right to directly petition them to go fuck themselves. Non-citizens can't stand up for themselves easily. So citizens must stand up for them.

As a diehard Pagan leftist, I will die on the hill of the Union was unambiguously on the right side of history, the war to destroy slavery was one of America's finest moments, & the greatest failure of that period was how badly the Union fumbled Reconstruction.

I realize this goes against the grain of US society... but that grain is how we got here. The people who can be criminally probed should be; those who want to hold positions of power should be making that clear now.

Minority Whip Katherine Clark puts out a stinging statement on the senate deal. "A GOP budget that spikes health care premiums and everyday costs to fund tax cuts for billionaires is a grave betrayal of everyday Americans. That was true in July. It was true in September. And it remains true today."

Trump is like a toddler: time he spends asleep is to be prized, not resented. Every minute he sleeps is a minute he is not tantruming or breaking things or smearing his own shit on things.

The majority of US voters, so far as I can tell, flatly do not care about trans people one way or another. They aren't necessarily especially friendly to them, but they clearly find the notion that they're supposed to obsess over them distinctly offputting. (Despite major efforts by the right!)

the harris campaign said the “they/them” ad didn’t sway the election. one of the trump campaign’s top strategists this week said trans rights isn’t in the top five issues for swing voters. when will the press stop talking about us like we’re a liability and start looking itself in the mirror

These cases are nightmares. Many people had removal proceedings “administratively closed” for years; the case is off the docket and the person can stay indefinitely. Now, suddenly, ICE is restarting them. And if they miss a physical letter, they might get ordered deported without their knowledge.

For those confused by state of play on SNAP right now: You're not alone Yesterday, *before* SCOTUS paused order telling Trump admin to send out SNAP $$, a handful of states rushed to issue full SNAP benefits to at least part of their caseload. This includes CA, OR, WA, MI, and WI—all blue states (🧵)

Disgusted by my alma mater. All donations stop now, and I emailed to tell them that.

I get the sentiment. I even agree with it. But KBJ can't literally go heist the money and feed the people, so of four shit options she took the one most likely to get the most people fed before the Sinister 6 can get their claws into this. Realpolitik means there's no refusing the Kobashi Maru.

Folks, if you are hungry, please contact your local Sikh gurdwara. Or just show up for langar, which most gurdwaras do several times a week, for a free meal. Lots also do weekly or monthly drives giving out groceries. No conversion necessary. Feeding anyone who is hungry is a key part of Sikhism.

Remember, historically judges will almost always take gov't claims at face value. It's an astounding fact that judges are now increasingly realizing that this administration just flat out lies to them constantly. And it's good to see them calling it out (in this case with a Trump-appointed judge).

Nuremburg trials is the moderate position

We're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.

I see James Watson has died. What did Watson discover? Rosalind Franklin's lab notes. Only we spell it 'S-T-E-A-L' these days.

Hi Bluesky 👋 Small life update: I’m at the centre of a multimillion dollar lawsuit in Alberta launched by a failed candidate for Jason Kenney’s UCP It may be the longest and most expensive media trial in Canadian history I’m ready to go public about it and I want to share more details with you 🧵

people hate hearing this but it's 100% true, creating a huge pay gap between political leaders, their staffs, and other elites is a recipe for corruption. of course the flip side of that is taxes on the rich should be jacked way the hell up

I'm one of the four fired employees. I was a writer & producer at Bon Appétit for nearly five years, during which I helped organize our union and sat on our bargaining committee. I am, to my knowledge, the only trans woman in our union and the only trans woman on editorial who doesn't work at Them

Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...

ICE won't allow communion to be given in detention centers because demons quail and shiver at the divine presence in the Host.

A key figure in US politics that I think a lot of European observers obsessed with MAGA voters haven't really got their heads around is your average boring middle class suburban voter who in the face of incomprehensible reactionary chaos hankers after a Normie Revolution.

I must convey my ebullient congratulations to and my extraordinary pride in election winners Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill - two new female Democratic governors! An incredible accomplishment. 🙌🏻 Many congrats as well to NYC's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani - an impressive win. (1/2)

they’re going to make the entire 2026 midterms about trans kids in bathrooms and they are going to get absolutely dunked to hell protect trans kids: it’s the right thing to do and you’re going to win

just want to remind everyone again that zohran is the one cis candidate i am aware of that had his platform on trans rights written by trans people. i think that matters

American left-wing patriotism is Jewish guys signing Christian anti-slavery hymns about the first Muslim mayor of New York and I think that’s beautiful

On a purely mercenary level, I get why the popularists look at the polling on trans sports bans and think it's an easy layup for Dems. But the number of people who are going to be impressed by this kind of vice signaling is so small, while the number of people you turn off is much larger.

"You don’t have to know about this celebrity. For the record, though, it’s pronounced 'hock two-ah.' It’s not a slur, but still, don’t say it. If you really want to know, just google it. I’m not going to explain it to you."

Traditional American politics is premised on the notion that sometimes you lose and sometimes you win and you have to deal with that. But Trumpism is premised on the notion that any result where you don’t win is illegitimate, unlawful, fraud, criminal. You can’t negotiate with people like that.

Zohran Mamdani wins! He ran on an unabashedly pro-transgender platform, stood up for the most vulnerable, as so many have pushed for the Democratic Party to abandon trans people in order to win. Major win for trans New Yorkers - he has vowed for intense resistance to anti-trans Trump policies.

From Evan: it's a huge night of hope for the trans community. The Republicans went all in on anti-trans ads in multiple races and so far there's no sign it got them anything. Perhaps the page can be turned on blaming us for Harris' loss last year.

I'm just happy for my many many friends in NYC that they will have a mayor who loves and understands the city and will try to make it a better place to live. he will surely have wins and losses, exceed expectations and disappoint bitterly. but he loves your weird city so much.

Little-known worthy Canadian contribution. Alfa, Bravo, Charlie. The phonetic spelling familiar to fliers, soldiers and reporters listening to police scanners. Implemented Nov. 1, 1951, it was developed by ICAO with University of Montreal linguist Jean-Paul Vinay. web.archive.org/web/20190212...

This is ugly. But the reason this lady was protesting is even worse. ICE thugs detained two children and their father on their way to school. One child appears to have been beaten in detention, and no one seems to know where the 12-year-old girl is right now. The family had been seeking asylum.

I joined the protests at the Broadview ICE detention facility because of what is happening to our immigrant neighbors: children zip-tied and shoved into vans, mothers pulled from cars on the way to school, neighbors afraid to go to church or work.

I’m really starting to suspect that most of the tech bros haven’t actually read Tolkien, as they certainly don’t understand it. The gentle hobbits save the “hard men” of Gondor, largely through compassion and selflessness. Not the other way around. The Christian parable is barely hidden!

The actual finding here is that a huge percentage of the population believes things that are not true. Democrats objectively did not spend significant time on climate change or LGBTQ issues in the last election campaign.

The NY Times and WaPo may be lost causes but holy shite look at PEOPLE out here absolutely killing it with 100% unvarnished truths 🌟

Didn’t realize until today they had color photography in 1812

I'm not a West Wing obsessed lib or anything but the more I see pictures of this the more fucked up I think it is. It's like he cut off one of the hands of the Lincoln memorial with an angle grinder so he could add a big gun to it.

I mean this is viscerally upsetting because it's really genuinely him treating the white house like it's his own personal property; he's the king and it's his palace. No other president ever thought like this, even if they were a fucking horrible person, because it goes against our founding creed