Came on this computer to do a yoga class. Bye, Bluesky. For now.

Turns out being the biggest asshole in the world in political office is *terrible* for the climate too.

One of my favorite story about the Obamas was never in the news. A friend who was a teacher at a performing arts high school got a call from a former student who'd moved to LA & was working as a session musician. 1/

The Jim Crow south was a terrorist, authoritarian state for decades and decades; launched with political violence and assassinations, maintained with terror and crushing state laws.

I’m increasingly of the view that NYC’s campaign finance reform (small donor matching) was key to Mamdani’s victory. Yet popularists and many Dem elites call small donors “extreme” and prefer the large donor dominance that wouldn’t led to Cuomo.

the vibe

When I moved to Boston in 2000, I would end up bawling on the side of the road, clinging my paper map, in Watertown AGAIN when I was trying to be in Waltham, over and over. GPS For the People was the best thing that ever happened to this city.

That moral dilemma you have when you’re like “let’s take the T” and the other person is like “nah, I’ll drive, you can come in my car” is real. At least for me.

It’s weird to me how we have all these Spanish names for places and culturally don’t dwell on what they mean. I just learned the word “Nevada” means snowfall. I’m 52.

It’s exhausting to have to hear people tell this story - very, extremely simple story - of how Trump is racist to the bone and unashamedly so - over and over while white Americans are like, “I mean, let’s not jump to conclusions.” The man shouldn’t have been allowed to be a major party candidate.

I have been an Independent voter for most of my adult life. Think I am finally going to go Dem. There isn’t any pretending “the other party” is going to put out anyone moderate I might consider voting for at this point, and I can participate more in Dem engine if I commit.

100%. The nuclear option is the only one at this point. Downsides include maybe getting universal free health care and child care for all, as well as a puppy

I don’t go all in on Obama worship but this basic fact: the President of the United States is a real job, in service to your nation, and Trump shits on the office every minute he is in there with his degraded, corrupt, venial behavior. America deserves better

2022: NBFA lawsuit charging Black farmers lost ~$326B from discrimination 2022: Biden's IRA authorized comp for farmers who faced discrimination from USDA 2024: pymts from $2.2B Discrimination Financial Assistance Program started 2025: DJT reverses www.thecharlottepost.com/news/2025/07...

So does the last 11 years of Trump

Happy Friday fellow Bostonians! There's a survey from @boston.gov on "curb use". If you have opinions on things like double parking or blocked bike lanes this is your opportunity to give feedback I said they need more 15 min pickup spaces + ticketing from 311 😈 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Bandcamp Friday, you ask? www.bandcamp.com supports artists directly. If you buy today, they get all the money.

So, first of all, of course it was Trump. But even if they were telling the truth, "We give staffers who post videos of the Obamas as apes access to the agenda-setting, decree-sending, market-moving account of the president of the United States" is not the exculpatory statement they think it is.

I highly recommend Fintan O’Toole’s book on Ireland - a personal memoir through the lens of Irish history. Excellently written, researched - and a stark warning for us here in the States: theocracy and corruption is really bad for us.

Whom you (don't) plow for shows whom you (don't) value.

I just wrote a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social letter: Tell Gov. Healey: No Collaboration with ICE . Write one here: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

We found that Jeff Bezos paid *zero* taxes in 2007 and 2011. In fact, he reported making so little in 2011 that he even claimed and received a $4,000 tax credit for his children. This is how he did it (published 2021):

I do not think the most significant cultural shifts will come from a World War, Class War, Race War, or whatever other battle people weirdly fantasize about. I think it’ll be an integration of the idea that children are people and not the property of their parents.

This is Zephyr. He is a professionally trained bed bug detector. When he recognizes the scent of live bed bugs, he gives an alert by sitting and smiling exuberantly at his handler. We're pretty sure no one has ever been more excited to find bed bugs in their life. 13/10 (TT: emmercrew)

So hot

“While working as a chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during WWII, he liked to snap women’s bras through their blouses-“a very bad habit I sometimes can’t resist to this day,” he recalled in 1979—& on at least one occasion, he broke the strap.” I have worn bras for 42 yrs, never broke a strap.

If you won’t say this, you should not hold public office

There are people who are successfully held accountable for their sexist/bigoted behavior but the way those things tend to be handled means people are not posting it on main. We see the cockroaches we couldn't kill.

Our lawmakers should be focused on passing policies that keep us safe—but instead, they're considering legislation that would gut our life-saving gun laws. I just sent a message urging my lawmakers to oppose it: etwn.us/3DGVCCY @Everytown

Having lived in the Netherlands for 7 years - cycling close to every single day of that - what keeps cyclists safe is great cycle path design, the fact that every driver also cycled and the fact that if a car hits a cyclist the fault lies with the driver.

as i keep saying, the things to do to secure elections are to volunteer to work the polls or to serve as an observer, & to pressure your *state representatives* to take steps to further secure voting locations and ballots. you should also learn about how election administration works in your area.

There's been lots of attention on 1 particular inexperienced & untrained govt lawyer But I want to give a shout-out to Kira Kelley, climatedefenseproject.org/profile/kira..., who focused on ICE's horrific treatment of an immigrant prisoner -- all occurring *after* the court had ordered him released

To point a sharper point on it, we would be better off refraining from deporting a productive member of the community and paying the ICE agents to watch Netflix or smash some windows instead. We could repair the windows & come out ahead.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Yes. But also, we allowed this country to lose 4000 papers. People who live in Sheboygan should have had a paper. This is so terrible because it’s one of the few papers left after decades of papers dying

In less than a week the Kennedy Center has effectively closed and our local DC paper has been gutted, both by billionaires. I don’t think immigrants are our problem in this country.

A lot of people cannot just start a paid newsletter or become freelancers to sustain their careers. The sports, metro, and international desks did work that requires *team* resources, like legal checks, documents, access to archives, and long-term beat experience.

What should I make with this pound of ground beef tonight?

I think we can’t underestimate how the fossil fue class is mobilizing against this incredible, joyful, inexpensive and sustainable form of transportation

Got out on these in the Fells for an hour for the first time in *ages*. Maybe before COVID? Bought them used in 1992 but they still get me outside!

people love to drive their cars in a manner most odious

I don’t like calling Trump “dumb.” The video with Ali G showed to me he’s not dumb. He’s crafty, amoral, greedy, caustic, sadistic and cruel. But not dumb. Dumb means there is an excuse for any of this. Dumb was everyone who let this man advance beyond his tax cheating in the 80s.

Luke Ganger, Renee Good’s brother: “In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation thinking that perhaps ‘Nee’s death would bring about change in our country. It has not.”

I spoke loudly at my city council meeting about what this regime is doing to children. We always need to speak out for children. This country is always willing to let them suffer first

“Nobody bikes in the winter!” By my kids’ high school:

“Have we gotten out of hand with how much attention we pay in this country to sports and connect it to higher education?” asks Pérez, who’s now CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “I think we need to do a lot of soul searching.”

Also, I want to make it clear that I agree with @thefireorg.bsky.social that Charles Murray should be free to give speeches to college students about how an imaginary person born from an egg after Zeus took the form of a swan and humped a queen is WHITE and it’s offensive woke DEI to say otherwise

Someone better be making sure there aren’t any bulldozers heading over.

Columbia administration looking especially craven and incompetent about now.