Remember how just a few years ago during the worst of the pandemic when we saw how the govt can actually do big things and saw that our collective health & well-being are intertwined, and then corporations got mad that they lost a modicum of power and helped fund a backlash of amnesia and fascism?

The effort to make us forget that Covid forced governments round the world to take fast, effective steps for the collective good is probably greater by this point that the efforts taken to contain Covid. America *ended child poverty*, then voted to reinstate it because it was off message.

This mf destroyed homeless' camps with his own hands.

Just because he's acting like he's never leaving is no reason for you to act like he's never leaving.

If you want to push back against tech's encroachment into every corner of our lives, you have to read books. They're eager to create a future in which most people are illiterate and hooked on slop, a world without imagination or knowledge. Reading is resistance.

Am working

Why does Trump, the larger authoritarian, not simply eat Putin

[writing the constitution] Benjamin Franklin: Write down "no dumb fucks as president" Alexander Hamilton: Stop saying that Benjamin Franklin: I'm tellin' you. You're gonna regret not writing that down

this is so fucking dumb. THEY NEVER SOLD IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. The disinformation is out of control. Worthless media hacks

Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children, Have lost, or do not learn for want of time, The sciences that should become our country, But grow like savages—as soldiers will That nothing do but meditate on blood⁠—

Just caught the cat carrying a mouse in her mouth and when I yelled at her to leave it alone she 100% dropped it and then sat on it and pretended like she didn’t know what I was talking about

“Careful honey—that’s load-bearing butter.”

It’s Peak Leo Season—the weather is gloriously sultry, my deck and front garden are full of flowers, the tree frogs and crickets are getting busy, our farmers market is full of all the best corn and tomatoes,

We have failed Mr. Rogers.

"It’s statements like these from Mr. Colbert that have rankled many rightwing fundamentalists over the years because they can’t simply claim he’s being inaccurate or even particularly judgy."

The only way to prevent AI-produced slop from becoming the default is to refuse to watch, play, read, or listen to stuff like this.

ranked choice voting question from aurin chowdhury, asks each candidate say what they admire in each other and why the other 2 should be on our ballots too, starting with dewayne davis on jazz hampton and omar fateh @dewayneforminneapolis.com

Yes hi I just walked my dog through a public park here in Minneapolis. The most threatening thing we encountered was the heat.

Cats just don’t appreciate Wimbledon.

Hey @themerl.bsky.social, check out this Absolute Unit the wife scored while thrifting. Thanks @anntandy.bsky.social! #AbsoluteUnit

Cat: I bite? Me: no cat leave my ankle alone Cat: I bite a little? Me: seriously, no Cat: jus a lil nibble Me: NO Cat: …toe? Me: DAMNIT

1. I live in a Blue state, which means that the infrastructure protecting the Public Good is functional and maintained. If a storm threatens a tornado, sirens go off telling us to head to safety. These sirens are tested monthly. When flash floods are warned we get loud alerts on our phones.

🧵Today is Friday, July 4. Good morning ❤️ We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all [people] are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights,

the "no means no" jokes write themselves

Minneapolis, this man is for real. Honest to the core and so, so driven to all things good!

Oh no oh no OH NO parents of offspring heading off to college FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY tell them they should ASK PROFESSORS if we are willing to be references BEFORE they submit our names ASK ME HOW I KNOW

Ngl thought I was seeing a promo for yet another Alien movie In totally unrelated news I might be off blueberries for a bit

when we remind everything they’re weird little freaks it works!!!!

So many galaxy brain politicos are obsessed with thinking we need to compromise our values in this moment to “win”. If we are throwing Immigrants or Trans people under the bus just to elect more “Democrats” then we’ve won nothing. All we’ll have actually done is lost part of our collective humanity.

in pretty much every domain, and not just through research, private industry *exists* because of public funding, public infrastructure, etc. It is a baby held up by its mother, thinking it can stand on its own two feet.

Gentlefolk All, I give to you the unrepentant face of a dog who, in insisting on being in the tiny space on this loveseat left by myself and the cat on my lap, jarred the coffee table, thereby spilling my coffee and disrupting both self and cat.

Watching Gladiator 2 Me: oh stop complaining about the fight scenes not being historically accurate it’s just a movie Also Me: that’s totally not an efficient way to get rid of that many bodies

I love all of this. As I say to my students, “humans gonna human.” And we do it with incredible creativity and variety!

A few of us are still out here. Sorry for the shaky video.

I’m sorry did you just say that a white man got so sad about Black people having jobs he crashed a plane?

The world is going to hell but this morning the dog found me doing yoga and when I went into downward dog I said “BIIIIIIIG STRETCH” and she did the pose with me. I feel a little bit better.

Navigating art and artist is never going to be easy. On one hand, knowing the artist is a monster makes it hard to enjoy the art, and it probably should, if you have any kind of ethical framework. On the other hand, historically, lots of people are monsters, especially powerful artists/authors.

Wow!

This is brilliant!

A hard read, but an important one for anybody still on the fence about either Gaiman or Palmer. Please pay heed to the content warnings.

….treeeeeeeeat?

You mean, like, right now?

If Mary Shelley could write Frankenstein with Lord Byron swanning around slamming cocaine wine in the background then I can get my work done today

I keep writing “why aren’t we talking about how Trump stole the election?” on all of my checks.

Too-notch banger of a dance number but also the source of my Most Epically Mis-heard Song Lyric ever: Me, to husband, sotto voce because of kids in the backseat: Honey…are they singing “who just sucked the dicks?!?”

Daily reminder that the underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.