Best case scenario is we are all figments of a cephalopod dream

reupping for no reason in particular

And "women ruined the workplace," per the New York Times last week.

Me Too didn't fail. It was buried alive

Once again I'm begging people not to compare politicians to invertebrates. Inverts are cool and diverse and play an important ecological role. Politicians are the lower order.

It’s not left v. center or progressive v. liberal or anything like that. It’s fight v. don’t fight.

One of our country's greatest war criminals just died, the president is arguing with himself about whether or not to let 40 million people starve, and there is an actual courtroom drama about a five dollar footlong. How are any of us supposed to maintain emotional regulation.

Ah, the end of Daylight Saving Time, when I must once again try to persuade my pets that it is Not Supper Time Yet, and they must once again try to persuade me that Clock Time Is a Malicious Fiction. (One guess which of us is winning...)

Day 24 of Emmanuel Garcia being in federal custody. He’s a 15 year old autistic boy who went missing 4 weeks ago. Houston PD found him, contacted ICE & his Mom is fighting to get him back She’s not allowed to visit him. They’re keeping a disabled kid from his family & the media is largely silent

This is the absolute minimum I expect of my electeds

34 people killed in 50 days. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death. adamisacson.com/boat-strikes/

Read the whole things, but some highlights: - Their new median estimate is *5.5 million* people protested yday - protest levels are 4x what they were in Trump's first term - at least 12.8 million people, or 3.7% of the population, have demonstrated against the president since he took office

Beautiful!

I always forget to take pictures at these things, but I did get this cutie from the #NoKings White River Junction, Vermont

I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.

We are Americans. We are free. And we do not do kings here. #NoKings

Spoilers are good, actually.

Listen to my pal @bethmacy.bsky.social brilliantly tie it all together on Fresh Air! Then check out her critical new book, Paper Girl. Not just another rant; real reporting about real people. 'Dopesick' author Beth Macy on escaping poverty -- and then going back home www.npr.org/2025/10/07/n...

Warmongers who tire of war do not magically transform into peace mongers.

Abolish ICE.

Matched perhaps by Doris Lessing’s response to winning the Nobel for literature: a tired look, ‘Oh Christ’ and a dismissive hand wave. youtu.be/vuBODHFBZ8k?...

Oooh the Nobel Prize is out today, so it's time for my yearly round of ignoring that news and reading about many of the women who were snubbed of the prize in the past and who the Nobel Prize committee refuses to apologise for. 🧪🔭

Speak up. Speak out. Don’t be silent about the injustices going on in our nation. op: thekoreanvegan (via IG)

The comedians were only invited because the poets refused

Can't believe they're making me side with Big Pharma for the 2nd time in five years.

No, I don’t want to see clips of the nazi rally.

Point of view: It’s March 2, 1930, and you are a fairly liberal German. That being the case, you buy your go-to Sunday paper, „Vossische Zeitung“. On page 5, you find a note on the funeral of the young Nazi Horst Wessel, who had died a few weeks after being shot. [A #Vossische1933f prequel.] 1/

It was very telling that for three days, none of the major TV anchors would have me on air one-on-one to talk about my firing from the Washington Post over Charlie Kirk. The first offers were from Black media, independent media, Substackers, and podcasters.

Please take time out of your day to read this thread. It is fantastic.

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

Thinking about how the manners of so-called civility have historically been a code by which one class maintains hegemony over others (yes I’ve been rereading Jane Austen again, it’s my comfort food, why are you looking at me like that)

One thing the media's reticence to label Kirk an extremist has made jarringly clear is how scared they are of the people in power now who share his extremist beliefs. In the space of nine months, they have internalized a fear of condemning racism, misogyny, homophobia and antisemiticism.

mandatory reading for the day:

In 2015 it was "lock her up." In 2016 it was "2nd amendment solutions." In 2017 it was telling cops "please don't be too nice." In 2018 "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." In 2019 it was "can't you just shoot them in the legs or something?" In 2020 it was "stand back and stand by."

per the Atlantic excerpt, Harris is walking a fine line, blaming Biden's comms team for her woes but not Biden himself. But wasn't his team a direct reflection of him? I.e., if he had wanted them to lift her up, they would have.

Kind of love @anthonymoser.com's I Am An AI Hater... anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

To be fair, there’s more sentience in my sourdough starter than any AI chatbot

The thing about accepting Newsom's depravity against trans people or the homeless on the grounds of "Yeah, that's bad, but we have to beat Trump or it'll be worse." is that by accepting it, you mark it as acceptable, both within your mind and in the larger world around you.

Two things can be true: 1) this administration is causing & will cause incalculable damage & death to vulnerable people, and eventually to everyone except maybe the oligarchs. It is a horror show beyond many of our wildest previous imaginings 2) they are bungling fools and they have already failed

ah yes the long simmering "can a U.S. president invade the United States to enforce racism through a campaign of kidnapping, murder, and terror" debate, gotta hear both sides

Modern AI tools emulate the classic con-man tricks of mentalism, tricking people into believing that they’re far more clever - and sapient - than they actually are. Fantastic piece by @baldurbjarnason.com : softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...

The military takeover of Washington is not a “distraction” from Epstein. It’s a military takeover of Washington, which is an even bigger deal, and those of us who kill brain cells reporting on this stuff knows it’s been an explicit goal since before the election.

In every conversation about AI I am Minnie Driver insisting on the importance of actually knowing something myself, however sexy Matt Damon is

“Officials have begun separating children from their families in small numbers across the country, in what appears to be a more targeted version of one of the most explosive policies of President Trump’s first term.”

I think we’re on the cusp of mass attempts to automate teaching, and I also think it is going to be a massive wasteful failure in ways that will make the “learning loss” of the pandemic look like a speed bump next to a mountain.

Question for Mike Flood: With $450 million being allocated to Alligator Alcatraz, and ICE burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people—How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the tax payers have to pay for a fascist country?

This really is a perfect analogy for the entire AI experience: One second in: "Wow, that's gorgeous." Three seconds in: "Hold on. That doesn't make any sense." Five seconds in: "IT'S GOING TO KILL US ALL."

Dear friends, this is why I will not subscribe to your substack.