A better world is possible

genuinely impossible to overstate what the secret police are doing. It is state hooliganism. It is gangsterism as policy. It is the jouissance of the original klan nightriders that followed the civil war. they terrorize minority communities while intentionally paralyzing local governments.

Trump has so transformed and degraded the machinery of American government that it isn't enough to just beat him or his successor. Someone has to rebuild the liberal democratic state.

Back in Chicago. The last time I remember seeing this many helicopters flying overhead I was in Kabul

Setting my alarm so I can go line up for the sturgeon drop

An edamandate, if you will.

On Bari Weiss, corporate media’s capitulations to trump, the rise of fascism — and why we need independent journalism more than ever. thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/03/b...

New on my newsletter: there are few things more cheering than discovering a serious new bakery within striking distance. Coastal Bake Shop is a boon to Houston’s east side and the Bay Area: read about it at alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io

For #nationalpoetryday, one of my favourite short poems. "Ireland", by Paul Muldoon.

rare jpgs

Hey remember when the CDC dropped 6 of the 8 foodborne illnesses from the nationwide monitoring system in July and one of them was listeria? Mentioning for no particular reason www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Since they’ve cut food inspections at the FDA, the burden is now more on consumers to protect ourselves from contaminated food: www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

Pretty much.

I can’t believe I’m watching interviews of city mayors talking about how they are coordinating with other mayors to discuss how to protect their residents FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I know we are “used to it” but it is absolutely insane

You don't want a sandwich to be too dry but you also don't want it to be too wet. Aristotle called this "the golden mean"

President Trump was met by silence as he began his Quantico address, a contrast from the rousing applause he expects at his speeches. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” Trump said. “If you want to applaud, you applaud.” wapo.st/4gSqzmS

A mad little story of brazen food PR nonsense, and a wider indictment of media context collapse in Ireland and everywhere else. Excellent work by @allthefood.bsky.social

Ever since the pandemic, there’s been a surge in this culture of disrespect. Just complete disrespect and selfishness and gross behavior by a loud, significant subset of Americans. You see it everywhere. Driving, fandom, community issues. It’s all the worst things packaged into one.

Ladybird has been in shelter at Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center for FIVE YEARS. She only weighs 48 lbs and is a very good girl . Please, please share. Someone out there can give her the home she deserves. More info about her here: www.facebook.com/share/p/1Fug...

New on my newsletter: made a pilgrimage to Molina’s Cantina, Houston’s oldest Tex-Mex restaurant, to pay my respects to their classic Enchiladas de Tejas. But something was missing: sign up to read it for free at alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io

Maybe it's just because I order a lot of small stuff from overseas, but I have a feeling that this is going to affect a lot more people than Republicans realize.

I've been saying this since January but just describing the news accurately makes you sound hysterical to people who aren't following things that closely

This really needs to be said more often: If you're a grown adult and are afraid of the NY subway or Union Station in DC, you're a coward. Period.

New on my newsletter: Is this the world’s best easy breakfast? Super-indulgent. Healthy-ish. Made in a flash. Sign up to read about it for free at alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io

Well, there goes my Japanese food replicas Christmas list. No dried sardine tie pins or cherry-tomato earrings for my friends. 👺

So desperate. So needy. So weird. bsky.app/profile/atru...

if you are gonna burn a flag I guess keep another one on a pole handy so you can beat the cop who comes to arrest you and then you can get a pardon? I dunno this is all very confusing

Sandwiches, pierogies, and beer are anti-fascist now. I don't make the rules.

there's a certain dark humor in the fact that the administration is treating a dude throwing a sandwich at a cop like a suicide bombing

Amazing how peak masculinity for a Republican is swearing that you’re too afraid to go outside

OPINION: "After some delays, the Amtrak Mardi Gras Service will launch on Aug. 18, 2025, running twice daily between New Orleans and Mobile. This route will include stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula," Dr. Selika Sweet writes.

New on my newsletter: startlingly good shrimp—and fish!—at the Pappas family’s new Yiayia’s Greek Kitchen. Sign up to read about it for free at alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io

"Stop publishing the employment data because we don't like the answers economists give" and "subject the Smithsonian to searching ideological censorship because we don't like the answers historians give" all on the same day.

Big moon. Quiet river. Lots and lots of roosting cormorants #birds

It’s not just about what you remove (cars, noise, dirty air). It’s about what you add (people walking, a lot of bike parking, trees, outdoor dining, and room for kids to play safely). Amsterdam: 1986 and today. Streets for people. HT @hackneycyclist.bsky.social for the before-and-after

A DOGE kid gets beat up in DC and it’s DefCon1; hundreds of bullets into federal buildings with officer killed in Atlanta and it’s crickets; violent mob attacks Capitol wounding dozens of officers and it’s pardons for all.

this is a great example of what happens when unserious, nihilistic people get in charge of actual institutions whose ostensible job it is to provide real services to real people. these people are LARPing their way through everything. trolling as govt bc they have no respect for the work of it.

New @alisoncook.bsky.social just dropped! Very excited to try this place. "Little's stardust" is exactly what I want to hear. alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io/im-all-about...

Let’s just pretend, for one moment, that everything is going to be ok

Idiot. The Russians tried to establish an airhead outside Kyiv, and were defeated at the battle of Antonov Airport. Then they rolled tank columns down both sides of the Dnieper—using highways!—and were beaten back.

“Unpaid stagehand.” A good reminder that I needed at this juncture.

So Trump is ordering the FBI and the National Guard to DC. May I remind you the same guy refused to do anything on January 6th 2021 against the violent Capitol Hill insurrectionists even when Congressmen from his own party were begging him? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/u...

For decades I have swum and boated in this lake. You don’t have to get the government to raise its water level to kayak. You get in, push off, and paddle. Decadent empire stuff. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

no but this is crazy

My goto is to ask LLMs how many states have R in their name. They always fail. GPT 5 included Indiana, Illinois, and Texas in its list. It then asked me if I wanted an alphabetical highlighted map. Sure, why not.

First of all, please admire this SUPERB potato vessel!

The only fun news story in the world continues to produce delights.