"the wise loon does not celebrate that the poacher has moved on to another lake" or some shit get real

I'm pretty proud of this poem I made out of the euphemisms that companies used to describe the ICE occupation in corporate communications. Also read the whole story: racketmn.com/corporate-co...

"Literary" doesn't mean "been to a library" or even "literate." It means "about literature."

THE ID ISN'T FOR THE BEER'S PROTECTION, BRIAN

“I wish I had the answer for why are we doing it,” Star says. “It’s an act of service. I don’t know. And it’s—so you can’t save everybody, right? You maybe can’t even save anybody. Like maybe all we do is frustrate. You know, give someone one more day with their daughter or their dad." Yes. This.

Every photo from Minneapolis looks like this. Cops decked out with guns and full tac gear facing off against people in bathrobes, parkas, and sweatpants armed only with whistles and cell phones. Yet every verified MAGA chode on X dutifully calls it a riot or violent insurrection.

Minneapolis is still occupied even if national media has looked away. Moon Palace is still running a book drive for Spanish language books. Help out by buying a few. (And skipping the coupon)

This is the aftermath of an ICE kidnapping a few blocks from my home in St. Paul—an hour ago. A quiet street full of broken glass and at least three wrecked cars. The target of the kidnapping was taken away by ambulance. He was on a stretcher and covered by a sheet, though a cop said he was alive.

Maybe we could explore the idea of selfhood in the immigrant population first and then move on to the World's Biggest Animatronic Parrot

As news coverage ebbs but reports from the streets indicate Operation Metro Surge is still surging, I’m surprised there’s not some kind of official report/press conference every day, like we used to get during Covid. Just the best update they have on what happened today? I think I am being naive.

here's an entirely shady company that attended my LDW webinar and recorded it without my consent. Did you know Illinois is a two party consent state for recording? Apparently their VP of Comms does not. They emailed to brightly tell me that now they had a recording ready for me webinartv.us

It is frustrating that the NYT profiled that AI grifter when Romance is such a load-bearing corner of publishing. You wouldn’t do that unless you actively hate books and the entire cultural apparatus around them.

Fixing fraud by smearing horse-dewormer on the spreadsheets

Neighbors in Ward 4 are carrying the mutual aid load without the support of our CM. Donations are winding down for one of our long time community hubs that is not only continuing to support pet owners, but our human neighbors. Mypitbullisfamily.org/mutualaid

Crockett: "The US is falling apart, partially bc he's allowing for killings in the street, but also bc we have a 34 count convicted felon being shielded from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. I don't understand why we're pretending any of this is normal."

my daughter loved it. the puerto rican century starts tonight

Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous

That incredible art in the midst of AI commercials. *chef’s kiss

If you were hoping for some sort of overt political statement: see the literal plantation Benito created to perform in.

In the past, Super Bowl commercials were snapshots of the cultural moment. The past few years they've felt like projections of a future elites want to force us into against our will.

The dj on the MIT station just went on a gorgeous tangent about how this semester he’s taking all liberal arts classes, and instead of asking him to reproduce established knowledge (as in most MIT courses) they push him to think about how he thinks. My Super Bowl MVP.

I am reliably told the trophy is called "The Iron D." Which... what a name. No notes. Sparty wins, the Sparty Bros next to me were thrilled. It is cold out there, go home and drink some hot tea.

My wife grew up in England in the 1970s. There was BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. That's it. And you could reliably expect that most of the people you interact with on any given day will have watched most of the same programmes that you watched the night before

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

i cannot stress enough that the phillips folks are freaking miracle workers. they are getting shit done, your money will move fast with them.

Trust me, the woman of academia are not at all surprised by the number of academic men orbiting Epstein.

I feel like aging is a constant cycle of thinking “Thank god I don’t have to worry about THAT shit anymore” and “Oh great now I have to start worrying about THIS shit.”

Who am I protesting here, Big Gate or Big Talent?

It feels like it's been impossible to get people outside of higher ed to understand that eliminating staff/programs/majors is primarily an ideological project, whatever claims are made about finances. What's happened at the Post is what's been happening in higher ed for ages.

Suddenly realizing that in 10-20 years, the MN Historical Society will have an exhibit about *all this* and there will be a whole wall showing different types of whistles

They don't tell you when you do your 8th grade report on #Jupiter that you'll spend the rest of your life reacting to Jupiter news like you've got some special connection. Like, Jupiter?! Oh, I went to school with her.

Also Flanagan came sporting these awesome ICE OUT earrings.

Klobuchar can talk a big game on the Sunday shows but she is not on our side. All she's done is normalize Trump.

I’m gonna name it. This isn’t a case of “legitimately differing opinions.” It is blatant professorial malpractice to adopt/allow genAI (or really *any* new edtech) just b/c we are told that we must. Especially in the humanities classroom, the only “ethical use” or reasonable stance is to keep it out

Every time I read somebody talking about how !!moms!! are organizing right now—just a bunch of unsophisticated politically apathetic ladies!!—I want to scratch at my eyeball with a tiny fork.

from bari weiss to head of cbsnews HR: what do you mean we can’t hire prof. lascivious d. studentabuser, he’s a smart guy with very valuable insights and i want him on the air to talk about grok this weekend from cbs news head of HR to bari weiss: bari — are you familiar with the term discovery?

To whom it may concern, Bad Bunny is a United States citizen whilst MAGA lunatic Nicki Minaj is not.

Confused as to how Josh Shapiro thinks it is appropriate to compare student protestors to the KKK but inappropriate to compare ICE to the Gestapo

a woman reached out to donate 500,000 delta skymiles to get people home to MN as they are released from custody in TX. we're getting flights booked today. it should be enough to get at least 15 people home. delta should be doing for free since they take ICE money.

Truly patriotic progressives are literally defending themselves and their community against the federal agency you enabled and you're busy catering to the ruling class that is working our country back into a feudal state? Delete this and your Senate campaign, please.

Republicans should fear electoral wipeout (in the general, to Dems.) Democrats should fear electoral wipeout (in the primary, to Dems that will fight harder.) bsky.app/profile/stev...

The key thing to remember is this was a city-approved protest and the protesters didn’t deviate from the plan, but were still attacked by the feds. Absolutely criminal.

34,000 signing up for this work AFTER seeing their fellow citizens gunned down by federal thugs in cold blood? I'm chugging whatever the opposite of doomerism is

The fact that they all type emails like that does go a long way towards explaining why "AI that writes emails for you" seems like a trillion dollar idea to everyone in power right now tho.

On my way home I stopped at one protest and drove past another, neither of which I had been aware of. I live six miles from work. They're on every street corner, every bridge. Keep cardboard and markers in your car.

And “protest,” in a narrow sense, isn’t even the right term for what we are seeing now. Crucially, in reaction to the regime sending an occupation force of masked goons, a new form of resistance emerged: Communities organizing to help their neighbors, confrontational but peaceful.

An undergrad course catalog is honestly a top-three literary genre, a singular expression of the variety of attention and possibility and wisdom that total strangers are dying to share with you

This trend is giving me life. College is cool, knowledge is great. The liberal arts is rad. Being well rounded is the GOAT. Fund all colleges and universities. We should be throwing money at them. Make it affordable for all. Let people take underwater basket weaving if they choose.

Frog and Toad went outside. “We can try to climb this mountain,” said Frog. “That should tell us if we are brave.” Frog went leaping over rocks, and Toad came puffing up behind him.

It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"