Carrie Frye has the most lovely story today, and then there is a glorious @todseelie.bsky.social photo feature. Writing and art made by real people!! is so good!!!! flaminghydra.com/issue-405/

ALSO TODAY: @todseelie.bsky.social on the wildest desert festival you’ve probably never heard of. “There are truly no spectators, no one who isn’t participating to some degree” flaminghydra.com/wasteland-in...

Keep up with the different surveillance technologies police are using across the U.S., from body-worn cameras to cell-site simulators. Stay informed using the Atlas of Surveillance. atlasofsurveillance.org/

🚨 Trump seizes control of DC police and puts Pam Bondi in charge as National Guard troops deploy. Critics call it a manufactured emergency amid record low crime, while the White House claims the city faces complete lawlessness. substack.com/home/post/p-...

TODAY: @annamerlan.bsky.social in conversation with @jessesword.com, editor of the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, on a perfectly insulting word. "I think that it’s good to be skeptical of technology, as many SF writers have been from its earliest days" flaminghydra.com/r/6188a49d?m...

For @flaminghydra.com I talked to @jessesword.com, a lexicographer and, full disclosure, my friend, about the perfect word "clankers" and the extremely imperfect story that's being told about where it came from: flaminghydra.com/clank-clank/

I’ve followed decades of modern skeptical discourse and looked into its precursors back to antiquity. Some things are almost steady state—there are always frauds, quacks, and charlatans, and often fears of a “rising tide of irrationality.” But elevating cranks to this level of power *is* different

California is such a progressive state that we allow the private utility companies to decide what they do and don't do it's like gentle parenting: just because some towns get torched and people die doesn't mean you can discipline them harshly

Please do not try to count for yourselves the number of times I have tweeted “the F word” as you will die of old age in the process

The Trump administration says they're the "most transparent" in history. But when I asked the Department of Homeland Security who writes their social media posts, something extremely weird happened: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I shared some photos I've taken of the only good office Christmas parties: Tony Hawk's flaminghydra.com/tony-hawks-h...

Join Tony Hawk and his crew on adventures concocted by what must be the world's most soulful event designer, N.D. Austin, gorgeously photographed by Tod Seelie

TODAY: @todseelie.bsky.social on photographing Tony Hawk's very unusual office Christmas parties, where guests "climbed through drain tunnels to find a hidden pop-up omakase restaurant [and] traveled through the desert on handmade train cars" flaminghydra.com/issue-391/#t...

🚨 Ted Cruz vacationed in Athens as floods killed 100 in Texas, reviving criticism of absent officials during emergencies and raising questions about leadership accountability. open.substack.com/pub/theintel...

Ghislaine Maxwell has asserted that she never saw the man she is hoping will spring her from a 20-year prison sentence “in any inappropriate setting” throughout the years he spent hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein.

"rent a campsite?!?“ why? I can try falling asleep to a loud generator at home for free

TODAY: @todseelie.bsky.social visits a pretend war zone deep in the California desert flaminghydra.com/r/ba58dd52?m...

Amazing photos from a still banged up and bruised @todseelie.bsky.social, but at least we finally got the tear gas out of his clothes flaminghydra.com/issue-344/#n...

TODAY: @todseelie.bsky.social on photographing Los Angeles' No Kings protest, and the cop-created chaos afterwards. "What the LAPD, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and California Highway Patrol lack in numbers, they make up for in sheer violence." flaminghydra.com/r/f8c77e46?m...

amazing photos (as always) of the No Kings march in DTLA from @todseelie.bsky.social in @flaminghydra.com (ps: you should totally become a subscriber)

An LAPD helicopter claimed to have ID'ed protesters from above and threatened to "come to your house." The threat was greeted with extreme concern by civil liberties and digital privacy groups. It suggests the LAPD could be using facial recognition to identify and retaliate against protesters.

TODAY: Introducing BRAND NEW HYDRA, photographer @todseelie.bsky.social, with a photo essay on crashing the Venice Biennale with a bunch of art punks on rafts made of junk flaminghydra.com/p/f071b948-c...

scoop: Business Insider is reducing staff by 21% as it reduces its reliance on “traffic-sensitive businesses.” Memo from CEO Barbara Peng:

Welcome to the age of the hyper-aggressive, doggedly loyal flack, who is fluent in one language: Trumpese.

“In the end, Trumpese doesn’t say much: instead, it’s a kind of blustering white noise designed by turns to provoke, batter, smear and, above all, shut down questioners,” @annamerlan.bsky.social writes.

Trumpese is used by government spokespeople, who provide absurdly aggressive (and often comically untrue) responses.

why everyone talks like that now www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I spent five weeks talking to federal workers about knowledge loss and brain drain across the federal government, and its implications, both right now and for decades to come. Their stories are frightening, but I think it's important to know what we're facing: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

“Health governance tools and resources and materials and trainings that were the gold standard for this type of work—they’re all gone. Just gone off the Earth. They took them away," says one former government employee.

No one: The Art World: you can only be talented if you're conventionally attractive

Thank you President Trump for FINALLY returning wealth and prosperity to the United States!

Fox removed the stock market ticker from their broadcasts.

CNN: Stock market plummets MSNBC: Stock market craters Highlights for Children: Stock market down big FOX News:

Citizen now gives updates for the overall United States

Which weapons do you think the trump admin will give us in their hunger games? I wanna start practicing

That's the whole plan www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Around 10 drone journalists were working in Gaza at the outset of the war. Five have been killed, and one was severely injured. interc.pt/3Y53GV2

read this great disneyland essay in @flaminghydra.com yesterday and am still thinking about this line: "I couldn’t help thinking that Disney would probably be preserved even if the government collapsed and American democracy ceased to exist, a little diorama of what normal used to look like."

TODAY: @annamerlan.bsky.social goes to Disneyland and has a mild meltdown about it. “It’s like being plugged directly into the collective unconscious, like climbing into the thrumming electrical grid that underpins the American imagination.” flaminghydra.com/r/40537637?m...

an eerily gorgeous essay on Being a Guest and Having Fun -- every day i am reminded why flaming hydra is a subscription worth supporting

loved this essay on Disneyland from @annamerlan.bsky.social for Flaming Hydra. less cynical than my own view, but not sugary either. clear-eyed and perfectly constructed. flaminghydra.com/issue-285/#g...

Anne Merlan is so, so good. If you don’t know how Flaming Hyrdra works — give them an email to sign in and read. You’ll see how good they are — they are very worth the small price of subscription. I’m a big fan and recommended them & Merlan’s work is one reason why.

this level of writing is why i'm happy to be a subscriber of @flaminghydra.com @annamerlan.bsky.social's "Too much joy" is a kickass piece of work and (obviously) highly recommended 😬

A glorious treat today at @flaminghydra.com: @annamerlan.bsky.social went to Disneyland. Ravishing photos by @todseelie.bsky.social. flaminghydra.com/issue-285/

It seems that if you follow the changes the GOP wants to implement in this country to their logical results their motto turns out to be "make America the Taliban"

Hey you guys remember eggs?

Heartwarming scenes of NYC: a truck with the Monster logo painted on it giving away free energy drinks on 7th Ave. Not a single person stopping to take one.

Heartwarming scenes of NYC: pigeons having a great time feasting on a giant pile of chunky puke at the bus stop. Sigh

I thought we were supposed to fire the president if the stock market fell more than 500 points?