I'm quite certain you were not planning to come today, but just in case you were

If you don’t vote in midterm elections because there’s no presidential option on the ballot, you’re missing the plot. This November will be the most consequential midterm election of your life.

Katsura Sunshine's Rakugo, May 8 in North Hills. www.pennsylvasia.com/2026/05/kats...

It's the Friday market close peace plan again! Like Charlie Brown and the football every week.

Folks, these are the stakes. Black Americans spent a century fighting and dying for the VRA. It is no more. It falls to all of us to pick the work back up, and carry on. Lament. Rage. Cry. Scream. I've done all these and more this week. But it will take our demanding it for it to happen

This week, the Supreme Court finally killed off the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I've spent the past decade studying the VRA and the attacks on it, so I thought I would offer some historical perspective, and where I think we're headed. This will be a long thread; buckle up.

Trump starts signing EOs that are slid in front him even while one of his aides is in the process of explaining what they are

I guess I've been lucky recently (and avoiding ordering from Amazon) but I got an Amazon order today that smells like perfume. It's not a medical problem for me, but I hate it. Now I have to air out my hardware product on the porch before using it in my house.

Today is Journey To Freedom Day. It commemorates the exodus of Vietnamese refugees after the Fall of Saigon in 1975. It honours the contributions Vietnamese-Canadians. This is the story of when Canada opened its doors to refugees. 📸 Henri Remillard 🧵 1/12

Today’s Wirecutter newsletter teased “a ‘life-changing’ upgrade for your trash” and I wondered if it was the trash bags I use. It was! If you have a SimpleHuman trash can, BUY THEIR CUSTOM FIT BAGS. They’re wonderful and worth the extra few cents a bag. www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...

Pittsburgh says: Workers over Billionaires, Immigrants over ICE! 🗓️ Friday, May 1 @ 5:30 pm 📍 60 Blvd of the Allies Join us for the annual May Day rally and march this International Workers Day. Bring a friend, coworker, partner, family member, or neighbor - our collective energy is powerful 💪🏼

Holy shit, this Penguins game. Next goal wins.

We must understand that the Voting Rights Act was not merely about ensuring Black Americans rights, it was about democratizing America. This ruling is not just a decimation of Black rights and Black Americans’ ability to have representation, it is a fatal blow to multiracial democracy.

What a baby

Community input needed! When Public Source held listening sessions across the Pittsburgh area this spring, affordability kept surfacing as a shared concern. From gas to taxes to sticker shock, we want to hear your experience and opinions on affordability. buff.ly/sUSbVp6

Something to consider for "white-collar" workers who, incorrectly, might not see themselves in Workers' Memorial Day. Does an executive or owner of your workplace care any more about your life than a factory boss does for their workers? Survey says, No.

It’s like they trained an AI to rant and ramble like Trump and then turned off any grammar check. Whoever filed this should be disbarred.

Let them never know another day free from shame. Let their children cut them off. Let their neighbors shun them. Let their accomplishments be dust. Let their food taste like ashes. Let their legacy be disgust and horror.

Passed in 1965 with overwhelming bipartisan support, and re-authorized repeatedly, the Voting Rights Act has long and widely been regarded as one of the signal achievements in US political history. Now an activist conservative super-majority of Court has taken it down with a brutal 1-2 attack.

Heard on NPR news of a 250th anniversary commemorative passport that has Tr*mp’s picture. But it’s on a page with the Declaration of Independence. The resistance is everywhere.

A wholesome story for nerds: On Saturday, I was signing books at a local bookstore for Independent Bookstore Day. The store had a signing-palooza with new authors every hour; toward the end of my hour, a woman came up and asked what my book was about. "Dictionaries," I said, and she lit up. 1/n

Charlottesville used bookstore’s got game

I keep saying: anyone who is nominated by Trump for any position is disqualified by virtue of having accepted the nomination there are no “good ones”, there are no guardrails, by definition taking the position is an indication that you will debase yourself and your department for Dear Leader

According to the International Energy Agency, data center energy use will nearly quadruple during this decade. By 2030, it will require the equivalent of 54 nuclear reactors to provide this much power.

I wonder if my two friends whose NEH grants were DOGEd are ever going to get back that $40,000 they were planning to live on for a year.

HEY HO OHIO (Esp Fayette, Gallia, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Pike, Ross, Vinton +SW Perry counties:) ELECTION DAY IS MAY 5 I've known @revterrywilliams.bsky.social for ages and he's a kind, incredible human who puts himself on the line for those at risk. 1000/10 would vote for him.

Ooh I got my mail ballot for the May 19 primary! Go democracy!

Today, Maryland will become the first state in the country to ban surveillance pricing in our supermarkets and grocery stores. We will also prohibit election methods that dilute the votes of protected classes and create a State Foster Youth Ombudsman. https://bit.ly/4tCS6OF

It was never going to be America First. It is Billionaires First and always.

#ScienceUnderSiege @michaelemann.bsky.social

These recordings are really wonderful. At the end of the story he talks about how it’s just the clean sound from that day, no post-production. www.npr.org/2026/04/27/n...

100 FOR SID 🔥 With tonight's victory, Sidney Crosby has his 100th career #StanleyCup Playoff win with the /penguins! What a milestone for the captain! 🐧

For Mother's Day, support moms being detained by ICE at Moshannon! Show up in front of ICE in Pittsburgh to donate items to go on the bus, or ride the bus to Moshannon to protest there, or donate money to cover the bus for others!

Hey, man, if you want to talk about all the many reasons professionals who study fascism and white supremacy for a living keep calling Trump a fascist and a white supremacist, we'd be happy to sit down and walk you through them all. Can you clear a couple weeks on your calendar? Three, tops.

Reminder: “Highly unusual” is a news euphemism for “this boob and his appointees have no idea what their jobs are or how to do them.”

Next time somebody tells you that science isn't political, ask them to explain this: www.science.org/content/arti...

Finally, some good news: workers at Hachette are unionizing, and you can sign an open letter of support. This is the way! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

My favorite art history genre is "Judith beheading Holofernes"

He’s not fucking Rasputin, wax the floors in his office and don’t tell him, let’s be done with this bullshit already!

This is excellent, and especially thrilling because it's the first thing I've read on this topic that gets past its supposed inevitability to assess what AI ed tech is actually like, and what it actually does. www.newyorker.com/culture/prog...

Have you ever noticed that the massive, coordinated, multi-year assault on trans rights is based on NOTHING WHATSOEVER

Released #OTD in 1975 #grindhouse #filmsky www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/De...

It's Monday!

Perversion of our nonpartisan public institutions into sick weapons of personal grievance harms all Americans. It may seem to some like it benefits their ‘side’, for a while. It ultimately harms all Conservatives and all Liberals, which few recognize until institutions and norms are gone.

American science, and thus our capacity for economic dynamism, innovation, and continued global leadership, is being systematically dismantled. This will permanently impoverish the futures of all Conservative and Liberal Americans.

The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger endorsed a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to people with felony convictions when they leave prison. State lawmakers passed the amendment and it will now appear on the state ballot.

This is a sterling ring from the Girl Scouts in 1960 and now you are never going to convince me that the girl scouts are not just recruiting for covens.