Good post to end the night on, reminding me to log off and sleep.

My whole search history rn is just measurement conversions. I cannot for the life of me remember how many tablespoons are in a cup.

I am often the only one (or one of a very few) masking in stores, offices, meetings, etc. It’s been this way for years but I still feel awkward walking in or putting one on in front of others. No one has ever criticized me and I still feel this way. More masking, less weirdness in 2026.

In 2026 let’s normalize masking for public health. If we could admit that with healthcare being gutted, vaccine access restricted and previously eradicated diseases coming back… having an extra layer like a respirator makes good sense. Let’s also normalize not mocking people who mask!

Collective call to action: Support the Mathewson St. Blanket Drive and our unhoused community “Your donation of blankets and warm clothing directly supports this lifesaving mission.” steveahlquist.substack.com/p/collective...

None of this is responsible. None of this is ethical. And--importantly--none of this is actually competitive. Do not believe anyone who tells you that AI schlock marketing is what will win you an advantage. That person does not care if you sell books; they want to sell you AI schlock marketing.

Many blobs have fallen in Newport where often we do not get blobs so go out and enjoy it folks

If you’re feeling generous over the holidays, our community can benefit from supporting a wonderful young person’s ongoing diaper drive. Please share and donate.

WHERES THE GRAPH

Now that Stephen Miller is calling for CBS to fire journalists who are trying to tell the truth about Trump's mass deportations, it's a good time to check out our deep reported dive into Miller's real worldview and agenda:

This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.

More people should know about Big Freedia, she's amazing

I have 3 books left to hit my goal for 2025. Picked this up from the library and … damn. It’s everything that needs to be said, to people in power and to all of us, right now (over my lifetime probably but I digress). “One Day, Everyone Will Have Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad.

Four people have the ability to destroy millions of lives. Ug.

disney should go back to making movies about how it’s ok to steal from rich people

Shocked and allowing myself to be momentarily thrilled & relieved that SCOTUS blocked Trump deploying the national guard to Chicago. I don’t trust this court to help us fight fascism but I’ll take any small win where we can get it

Trump has revoked legal status for at least 1.6 million immigrants over the past year by cancelling programs like TPS and student visas. Remember: these are people who entered the country legally. Trump never cared about “legal immigration" — just inflicting cruelty.

I know everyone is in full-on panic mode, but please remember that Trump's stop work order on the Revolution Wind #offshorewind project this summer was quickly shredded in court. This is a move of desperation.

Decided to upload the entire 60 Minutes segment in today's newsletter. Let's see how long it lasts. www.readtpa.com/p/watch-the-...

The “free speech” and “cancel culture” panics have led to overt state censorship because that was always their purpose. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

If you want to know what I was up to this year when I wasn’t yelling about politics, this is a good way to find out!

New from me, for @ms.now: "Having lived in Providence for most of my life...I say with certainty that the people here don’t want President Donald Trump using this tragedy to fuel his anti-immigrant agenda. It would be harmful and disrespectful to hijack our heartbreak for this purpose."

Hard to express how much I love this. Twitter is the Nazi site for Nazis. Delete it, ESPECIALLY if you're a famous person or political leader. Abughazaleh does a great job explaining that it's also TRASH and doesn't even let you reach your audience. Get the hell off.

support independent media. idk what else to say right now.

@npr.org @oceanstatemedia.bsky.social is this the “fact based journalism” we’re trying to do these days

Thread 👇👇👇 Why these “debates” are never a good idea. Liz Plank, what are we doing here?

That’s what these ‘debates’ are really about: framing old fashioned oppression as some kind of high-brow concern for women’s happiness. You know what makes us happy? Bank accounts. Voting rights. The ability to leave a bad marriage and not have a miscarriage kill us.

Across the country, women are dying of sepsis, losing organs, being arrested for miscarriages, and used as brain-dead incubators. Corpses have more rights than women living under abortion bans. What better moment to run a full court cultural press about how freedom isn’t that great anyway?

Why decline all these chances to defend feminism? Because to participate would be accepting the premise that our rights and humanity are up for debate in the first place. Once you’ve conceded that it’s reasonable to ask whether women’s equality was a mistake, you’ve already lost.

legitimately love this guy.

If you're not trans, I don't think I can fully explain how important this is. It's so powerful that one of the most circulated science media publications in the world has come out and said "trans children are real and providing transition care improves their lives." That's groundbreaking.

Congratulations to everyone who wrote an op-ed about how he just wants americans to eat better

Can’t stop thinking about this. The Trump administration is essentially extorting hospitals into dropping gender-affirming care—without Medicare or Medicaid they’d go bankrupt. It’s akin to a backdoor ban even for people with private insurance, a proposal that wouldn’t pass Congress.

From this point on, I'm forced to assume that every elected politician who does not immediately call for Trump's impeachment is in the Epstein files. Sorry. Just cutting the Gordian knot here, as one does during societal collapse.

Go get any outstanding shots for you and your children ASAP. RFK is trying to kill us, our kids, and our healthcare system. He needs to be removed from office immediately, and ideally also from society.

I know people are rightly going to be worried about child health, their own health. But we also can't afford this. Like, John Hopkins did an estimate (next link) and every measles case during outbreaks cost on average $43,000 to treat. That kid who got tetanus cost $1 million dollars to treat /1

If it was inevitable, they wouldn't work so hard to convince you.

A WICKED WIND

I am a cis woman who likes to wear pants and have a purpose other than being a forced stay at home baby maker. If you think you won’t be affected by strict oversight of gender expression, you are sorely mistaken.

This whole thread. We can’t give them a fucking inch on human rights. And trans rights are human rights.

Because the endgame of the anti-trans folks isn't about surgery, or hormones, or bathrooms, or sports teams. Those are way-stations on the path to the world they're trying to build, which is a world of stifling gender conformity. And you can't beat them by giving them part of what they want.

Once again a reminder: We can have trans rights, bodily autonomy, gender nonconformity, and freedom of expression, or we can have none of these things. There’s no third option.

The reason they're so focused on trans teens is that people who transition younger typically blend into society better. To the extent that they're willing to tolerate our existence in society at all, they'd rather we be easily identified by our appearance/voices/etc.

These are the people who are willing to go on the record. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/u...

EXCLUSIVE: the Working Families Party is putting out a recruitment call for people opposed to data centers in their communities to run for local office the recruitment effort comes just 2 days after Bernie Sanders called for a moratorium on data center construction

not that it will change their votes at this point and this has long been the case but henry cuellar, don davis, and vicente gonzalez should probably not ever know another moment of peace. henry cuellar: 202-225-1640 don davis: 202-225-3101 vicente gonzalez: 202-225-2531

Things absolutely getting worse and worse - for our KIDS. School shootings, vaccine rollbacks, and now we’re criminalizing providing affirmative care? This administration wants to kill kids.

Pretty sure this is what Wicked is about.