"Scanning mail is not working to curb drug smuggling. We need treatment."

It's tempting to view "The Tragedy of True Crime" as just a book about death—there's murder, killers, and victims—but it's actually an examination of life. In his comprehensive review of John J. Lennon's first book, Phill explains how Lennon is refreshing a stale genre.

Proud to be part of the team amplifying Phill's important work as an incarcerated journalist. #journalism #writing

Ever wonder what it takes to find your life's purpose in prison? Phillip Vance Smith, II writes about the difficulties of growing into one's own while behind bars in his latest blog on Substack, Prison Life Unlocked. prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com/p/finding-a-...

"You could say the role of a prison journalist is to illuminate the dark corners of prison." — John J. Lennon, incarcerated journalist

"If we consider prisons an important part of society, then the prison beat is important (just like war reporting, business reporting, etc.), and it’s essential to have people on the inside who are on this beat." — Wanda Bertram, @prisonpolicy.org

The Nash News was one of 21 remaining prison newspapers in the US. In his article for @inquest.bsky.social , former TNN Editor-in-Chief Phillip Vance Smith, II, looks at the role of prison journalists, the limitations they work under and why their reporting matters: inquest.org/what-is-the-...

Read Phill's latest short-fiction piece on Substack: prisonlifeunlocked.substack.com/p/put-yourse...

With his boss in mind, Vance said he ultimately opted for a more toned-down pair of St. Patrick’s Day socks to avoid distracting the president again.

“The Entertainer” by @pamavoledo.bsky.social is today’s 75-word #story on Paragraph Planet www.paragraphplanet.com #writingcommunity #amwriting

@amejx.bsky.social Durrrrrr, I'm hurrrrrrr again ...

@amejx.bsky.social Have you found the bird feed yet?

@amejx.bsky.social Like this?

Can YOU write a story in just 75 words? EXACTLY 75 words? One story is published on Paragraph Planet’s home page every day. Submit today paragraphplanet.com/submission.php #writingcommunity

We’re looking to document changes in the physical appearances of federal buildings during the transition to the Trump administration. Use this form to send us photos of what you’ve seen.

🕳️ #VanishingCulture ➡️ https://blog.archive.org/2025/02/05/vanishing-culture-what-early-internet-era-gifs-show-us-about-preserving-digital-culture/

I also made a feed for trending posts on Bluesky - most reposted posts for the past 3 hours bsky.app/profile/did:...

Something lighter for today.

Trump didn't want you to see the video.

I can’t believe this is happening.

Is everything terrible right now? Pretty much. But if you try to focus on all of it, you will not be able to function. So do what you can to make the world a better place to exist in- in the ways that you can & forgive yourself for what you can't. Doing something is always better than doing nothing.

NEW: We uncovered more deleted tweets from Darren Beattie, the White House aide fired in 2018 for speaking at a conference alongside white nationalists who Trump just appointed to a top level State Department job. In purged tweets, Beattie cheered on Jan 6th riot. www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/p...

If the US Attorney is serious about prosecuting people for simply posting the names of federal employees online, there's a guy with a massive platform who did this to a bunch of federal employees last November: www.cnn.com/2024/11/27/b...

Again: since there have been no reports of violence against Musk’s Misfits, watch for Trump hack Martin to try to investigate or charge people for merely naming them or publishing their pictures.

WIRED has been doing vital work. If you’re looking to support good journalism right now, subscriptions are cheap.

Sometimes it’s good to stop doom scrolling and create something lovely to share with the rest of the world. Richard’s site make it easy. 📝📝📝

In case anyone needs this or wants to repost: An archive of all CDC datasets uploaded to data.cdc.gov/browse before January 28th, 2025. Excludes corrupt datasets and data not publicly accessible. archive.org/details/2025...

It's not great that Trump seems to have no actual end goal with these tariffs beyond just literally everything being sourced and made in America. Pretty brain dead stuff.

Innovative Caturday post.

It’s important to know that a lot of productive activity is happening in person and offline, too. Not all of it can be broadcast online, but we’ve had hundreds of people showing up to our trainings, mobilizations, and more. Keep going. Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts. Everything matters.

It is a crime to lie to Congress if you are not already a member of Congress

WHO DID THIS!

amazing things are happening on rednote

I’m on RedNote just to watch whatever is happening unfold. Mind blowing .

Make some time off the social apps to explore ProPublica’s massive effort to expose the life-threatening deficits of the American health care system. It’s not just an article but an ongoing series that dates to 2022. www.propublica.org/series/uncov...

"Missing pieces" by @cynthiak.bsky.social is today's 75-word #story on Paragraph Planet paragraphplanet.com #writing

Appropriate for the times.

Mood.

(I dunno who made this image but I looooooove it)

There’s a narrative that Gaetz was a deliberate head-fake — a distraction to boost the real candidate — but I am always suspicious of narratives that attribute four-dimensional chess to trump as opposed to knocking over the table and eating the checkers.

I miss the simpler days of Bean Dad.

Testing

2024 so far.

I rang in the holiday season with a light show in November. Might as well take it out with another. Sparkle hard, 2024.

An excellent read for your whatever day it is: “ ‘Misinformation’ is false information that people sincerely believe and unwittingly spread; ‘disinformation,’ which comes from what the Soviets called dezinformatsiya, is deliberate deception.” www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/b...

Happy Caturday. Here is Murray Alejandro buzzing on the ‘nip.