"By the side of the everlasting Why, there is a Yes. A transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes."

people really don't like it when the rich and powerful tell them that their expectations for the future should be permanently and drastically lowered, is another way of putting this

“You gotta learn AI or get left behind!” is a bit galling given that the entire purpose of AI seems to be to steal our work and fuck our brains and shit up the planet, which is to say, its GOAL is to leave us all behind. That, in order to make its owners rich.

that they are freaking out this badly over a surtax on second homes worth more than five million dollars - the most excessive rich person thing imaginable, which doesn’t even affect most of them - really makes it clear how little attention you need to pay to the freak outs

A perk of owning your workplace as a journalist is that, if you think it's interesting, you can write story after story about an insane legal tangle of alleged scammers, political machers, and conflicted judges, and there's no one to tell you to knock it off. hellgatenyc.com/missing-2-mi...

I will need an exact count of how many times she specifically told him which butter to buy before I decide who is to blame here.

NEW: Growing fears of food shortages on USS Tripoli & other US ships in the Middle East. This photo is the kind of meals now being served. It was sent by a sailor to her family. Families are now trying to send food parcels to the ships. Full story 👉 www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Thursday that New York City will invest in a new program to provide cheaper property and liability insurance to landlords of affordable housing and rent-stabilized buildings.

It really is laid off if you do, laid off if you don't with corporate media www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/b...

The infinite growth model is one of the worst things to happen to journalism/media. At some point you reach the ceiling of people who want to read your magazine! You can just make enough money to pay people well and publish things and not grow forever!

Quote post with something good that lasted longer than the Confederacy (1861-1865) The Babysitters Club (1986-present)

Mamdani: When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich 
Well, today we're taxing the rich...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah--deep breath--hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

WHAT THE FUCK

When people say that the economy being good feels completely disconnected from their lives, this is what they mean. Okay, shoes are AI now, and they get $50 million for that. Reading that sentence doesn't feel like getting bonked on the head with a bowling pin at all.

Nothing says "America is Back Baby!" like "Allbirds became an AI hardware middleman because they wanted to pump their stock instead of going into bankruptcy, so they said they will find some computer chips somewhere, but can no longer sell shoes."

Yeah, Mackenzie Scott is a fascinating case. She is literally ignoring the SOPs of philanthropy in order to give away wealth as quickly and efficiently as possible and she’s still getting richer. At her level it is impossible not to make money. Tax billionaires, A LOT.

Not even going to try to explain any of this one to offline spouse. "So there's this movement of young Nazis who think their only value is their looks and they're hitting themselves with hammers to improve their bone structure which I'm fine with actually, go ahead and knock yourselves out, boys."

Its telling that the Speaker of the House, a self-proclaimed devout Christian, feels its more important to sanction the Pope for speaking on the immorality of the Iran War rather than sanction the President of the United States who equated himself with God.

Saving the English department by relabelling our chronological survey course "the eras tour"

Been playing this trick since his first administration, purporting to protect tips while actually making it easier for corporations to garnish earnings

This is wonderful, hopeful news. It's so great that @heathergerken.bsky.social, one of the country's foremost voting rights experts, now heads the Ford Foundation. www.philanthropy.com/opinion/comm...

Never again means never again for *anyone*

So this happened.

Book censorship has so many far-reaching consequences, especially in the world of children’s publishing. Whoever your audience, if you’re an author you should be screaming about this.

We have entered the “you can’t kill me if I commit suicide” phase of American Decline

This infuriating attitude shows up on the bookshelves in learning environments, too. We expect girls to empathize with boys, but we kneecap every opportunity to let boys empathize with girls. And look where we are.

This is true. This rightly points out that the growth of women in STEM careers wasn’t by chance but a concerted, long term effort. But they didn’t have to convince women that it wasn’t degrading to do STEM work, whereas a lot of these guys think it’s below their dignity to do any kind of caregiving.

The fact that this isn’t an Administration-ending scandal, in and of itself, is astounding.

Dunkin’ Donuts coffee sucks

cis women transphobes are as embarassing as they are revolting because they will declare with their whole chest “I am less capable than a man and I demand you treat me accordingly by lowering your expectations!” girl shut the fuck up there’s no gender advantage in CHESS

The genocide we are seeing was predicted as the end result of Zionism by The Bund, a leftist Jewish movement. It is the type of Judaism I was raised in. I'm to be included in the 60%. As the Bundists knew, “it’s either solidarity across difference or savagery.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

I say this as someone who has been public about identifying as an antizionist Jew: Elad is 1000% right. If you associate Jews with Israel unless they’ve personally proven to you they’re “one of the good ones” you’re accepting the premise behind both the genocide and the antisemites exploiting it.

There has been talk about "clean YA" for longer than I've been publishing books, and it's always bullshit (though sometimes funny because my books *sound* clean, and then Certain People get mad that I've tricked them), but the dichotomy is getting more damaging to books, to readers, and to careers.

Why I don't trust anyone a little too obsessed about falling fertility rates

I imagine it takes a LOT of frustration for rank and file soldiers to openly say the Pentagon is lying.

Big news! ARB's first fundraiser is officially live! We're shooting for the very modest goal of $1k, with lots of stretch goals in mind. Your support is of course appreciated, and any help in spreading the word would be wonderful!

Anybody want to write an article for my favorite Sword and Sorcery magazine?

also EVERYONE (who is not a pathetic loser) HATES BOOK BANS 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

New: 150 unionized ProPublica workers are on strike TODAY over AI, layoff protections, wages, and more. They're asking readers to not visit ProPublica or engage with content on other platforms. It's the first work stoppage of its kind at the newsroom. www.theverge.com/news/908401/...

Only a master deal maker could achieve the status quo of 5 weeks ago in exchange for accomplishing nothing of value and turning his country into a global pariah. Thank you sir

Here’s the thing. Is the threat a distraction? For sure. But does it then follow that he will not make good on that threat? Fucking absolutely not because he’s a narcissist and who literally believes other people only exist in relation to his vague yens & aversions, moment to moment. It’s dangerous.

These miserable reps have literal interns answering the phone. The youngest and most vulnerable and powerless people in their offices are the ones talking to the public, hearing these anguished cries for action. That's a massive moral failing of these politicians.

Jeff Bezos has $222 billion. If he paid my wealth tax this year, we could fund insulin in America for everyone who needs it plus free school lunch for every kid in Texas—and have plenty of money left over. And Bezos would still have $215 billion dollars to spare.

I’ve said this before but I truly think that reading shit you’re not ready for is how you learn to sit with discomfort. By forbidding the next generation from pushing their boundaries, you’re doing them an immense disservice

Reading the Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler at my grandmothers house at 13 was one of the most uncomfortable and most formative experiences of my intellectual life

Since today is First Contact Day (the day in Star Trek when humans meet their first aliens, Vulcans) it’s worth talking about that story a bit and how it can inform our analysis of Artemis. This involves a lot of spoilers from the film Star Trek: First Contact 🖖🏽 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Tr...

Balint: "If President Biden or President Obama had said anything remotely like this, it would be nonstop coverage on every single channel and everyone on the other side of the aisle would be howling about it and demanding that they step down."

Think about how basically every TTPRPG group has more robust systems in place for dealing with bad actors, than the US government.

It might be because it’s an inherently unethical and ghoulish premise for a platform? Just spitballing though