“I hope that if I bang my head against the wall, it will help me to think of a story,” said Toad.

I'll summarize this: Mamdani asked NYers to keep air conditioning at 78 degrees. A wave criticism hit online. A MSNBC broadcast pointed out the US Department of Energy recommends that 78 degree figure. Immediately after, the US Department of Energy deleted 6,000 web pages related to energy saving.

this guy has it

Our Constitution bans foreign emoluments and names bribery as an impeachable offense. Another case where the problem isn’t the Constitution.

The $400m flying bribe has shelves of fake books, some titled “Library”.

Worth noting that the arts are also an economic driver, not a drain, and also there are more people working in the arts in America than in coal mines, if we’re talking the politics of it.

Again, charges here are so, so absurd that you really need to look at what happened in the grand jury. we've seen the evidence. grand jury misconduct is rife in the Trump DOJ. We've seen the evidence. It comes from the top.

The American legal system is being abused in order to pander to the president's fantasies and make them seem real www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/u...

I wrote about the Supreme Court's latest disgusting anti-trans ruling. I wrote about it because I refuse to act like taking away constitutional rights and allowing legal discrimination is okay just because it's happening to people who don't poll well in a diner in Ohio. In @thenation.com

When no one shows up for one of my bookstore events, at least some of the staff come by

As President Donald Trump boarded his inaugural flight of the new Air Force One, a luxury jet donated by the government of Qatar, he shared his excitement for the new aircraft and its foreign builders, saying the US "couldn't build a plane like this." https://cnn.it/4wcuEsk

We've done 300+ focus groups since start of 2021 with swing & disaffected voters. Number of times participant has volunteered "trans people" in any form in answer to what's going wrong or their beef with Dems is zero. You can lead them there - for sure - but this is not a thing people think about.

Clarence Thomas says the 14th Amendment should be read narrowly because it was written for formerly enslaved people. By that logic, the 2nd Amendment was written for muskets, not AR-15s. Funny how that kind of originalism only shows up when it's convenient.

totally agree with Vance here

We are in ‘the emperor has no clothes’ territory, folks.

Bold to set The Backrooms 2 outside, but this preview seems promising.

"Joy Is Resistance" if you're part of an actively targeted, vulnerable group. Your public joy defies their destructive power. If you are not being targeted by power, joy is still an essential part of life, but it is not, in any meaningful way, resistance. Keep dancing, but volunteer for something.

School board elections have become hugely important for defending First Amendment rights. People need to figure out how public library board members are chosen in their states too. Mine are selected by county commissioners.

We've pulled phone scripts for all three book banning bills into one place. Use them, adapt them, share them with your community

Wow holy shit www.them.us/story/daught...

NEW: Meta paid hundreds of contractors to pretend they were kids—and then prompt rival chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT to talk about subjects like suicide, sex, eating disorders, and self-harm. From @dmehro.bsky.social and @joelkhalili.bsky.social

Compare & Contrast with “The Great America State Fair” this weekend

This thread!

“Zuckerberg knows that threatening [CARELESS PEOPLE author] Wynn-Williams for standing in wooden silence on a stage makes him look like history's most guillotineable billionaire.” @doctorow.pluralistic.net on Meta’s intimidation tactics. pluralistic.net/2026/06/27/z...

Meta used computer software to track their employees' keystrokes and mouse clicks in order to replace them with AI. And now that data has been breached.

I know this is not the biggest concern going these days, but it stresses me out that basically every artist/writer/critic is now expected to create their own tiny empire instead of getting paid by any existing entity to perform a job they've worked to get good at!!!!

I don’t get why no one bothers to point out that micromanaging renovations of the reflecting pool aren’t even remotely the job of the president. Everyone seems to be cool that this is is primary policy focus.

The city where strangers embrace in the street, where people line up to vote to feed and house and educate the most vulnerable in their midst, where more people choose to live than any other place in the country, the place enjoying the safest era in its history — this is the *real* America.

🤣🤣🤣

I was lucky to take two classes with Professor Thurman in college, and he gave me a lot of advice when I was starting out as a writer. A kind, wise, and humane being he was.

Mamdani's speech at the Knicks parade was easily the best I've ever heard at an event of that sort. I posted the whole thing on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Highly recommended.

For Your 3rd, 4th, and 5th Graders Who (Now) Love Basketball! Looking for summer reading or back-to-school reading for the young people in your life who are (now) all-in with basketball thanks to the New York Knicks historic run? Please consider sharing my middle grade Rip & Red series with them.

Everyone who is scared of cities and multiculturalism is a loser.

Douglas Adams: > Anything in the world when you're born is normal, ordinary and a natural part of the world. Anything invented between when you’re 15-35 is new, exciting and revolutionary and you can get a career in it. Anything invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things. 1/

Met Jane a few times, read her books to my kiddo often, and stayed her cabin at Highlights a few weeks ago. What an amazing and beloved legacy she leaves us. Baruch Dayan HaEmet

“ If you don’t live politics, politics will live you.” — from the Booker Prize Winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

!!! Loved this book! Excited for this movie!

If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

Robert Coles, an eminent child psychiatrist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard professor who came to wide renown documenting social and political unrest and its impact on young people, the poor and the vulnerable, died June 4. He was 97.

Pride Month, Teen Reads Here are two outstanding 2026 books for teen readers -- one fiction, one non-fiction -- that belong in every Pride Month collection. ONE WORD, SIX LETTERS by @adibkhorram.bsky.social THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES: AIDS IN AMERICA by David Levithan and @gabrielduckels.bsky.social.

Dr Coles guided me in writing my first book—about children and war— and he wrote the introduction to it. I was lucky to have briefly intersected with him. He was a humane giant who truly listened to young people. May his memory be a blessing. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/07/u...

🚀 from @alexlondon.bsky.social today at @morningtransport.bsky.social

A new short story, free to all, on The Sunday Morning Transport! Inspired by the Artemis II mission, love, and conspiracy theories. Enjoy!

There’s a new story I wrote coming out today on @morningtransport.bsky.social! Watch this space…

new William Gibson book opening line dropped

ONE OTHER NOTE the implication of this is that the Americans, British and Canadians who stormed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword were dangerous ideologues by opposing the Nazis. He's siding with the defenders. Who were the Nazis.

When I wasn’t posting newsletters to my Substack, I gained subscribers steadily. In the last month, been trying diferent things, posting more, and every time I send a new one, I lose a few subscribers and gain none. Guess my posts aren’t improving upon the silence!

Happy 250th everyone. The Founders’ faith is now disqualifying.

Great new report from @publiccitizen.bsky.social: 14 of the 27 publicly-identified donors to Trump's ballroom have won $50B in government contracts over the last six months. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...