15 percent of American homes lacked indoor plumbing in 1960. The idea that everyone in 1955 America lived in a split-level suburban home with two cars and three kids and one income is, quite simply, a fantasy borne of media consumption.

Lots has happened since our last @demsabroad.bsky.social #Kreuzberg Kiez meetup! Join your local Americans abroad and friends on Monday 10 Nov 2025 at Yorckschlösschen for community, strategizing, and drinks. RSVP appreciated: www.democratsabroad.org/324260/kreuz... #Berlin #Germany

If you're wondering how to generate your own slogan, this fun site made it possible: homes.luddy.indiana.edu/ccshan/for/f... (check out the design coop called Forge that did the incredible design work for the Mamdani campaign: forge.coop/ )

If someone shares photos in #ProtonDrive folders, is there a way to get a view w/larger previews in the web? I don't have an account, don't see an option to switch view style anywhere. It's unwieldy because looking at each photo is slow—it shows a blurry preview, loads higher-res seconds later.

Shook a few needed laughs and smiles out of my bitter ragged bag of a heart.

California ballot faxed yesterday; counted today!

Really looking forward to speaking at @writethedocs.bsky.social in Berlin tomorrow! I’ll be sharing how we at @sovereign.tech Agency communicate about complex open source technologies in ways that everyone — not just software developers — can understand… and WHY we invest time/energy in doing so.

There are few things as gratifying as a long over-due freezer defrosting. Reaching in and breaking off giant pieces of ice and accumulated frost, I think I’d need a pressure washer for more fun.

24 Oct 2025 -- TIME story on trans ppl escaping discrimination: "Rainbow Railroad which helps LGBTQ+ people escape state violence, received a record number of requests from US...& nearly half of trans adults have relocated or are planning to relocate to another state..." @rikiwilchins.bsky.social

That's a Thursday night downer: SchwuZ in #Berlin has announced that they are officially closing down. They had filed for bankruptcy in August, hoping a buyer or some way could be found to be able to keep one of the oldest queer clubs in Berlin (since 1977!) open. www.instagram.com/p/DQKTg7fjDNA/

Have you ever had work-from-home days where you've been writing emails/chatting/doing so much computer work that your fingers are just tired? Not like a sprain or repetitive stress, just... over the taptaptap. For the record, I am very good at typing, very fast, and can even do it without looking!

I was just telling someone the other day that it’s surprising/weird that there are no LAP coffee shops near me in #Bergmannkiez. It looks like those days are numbered #kreuzberg #berlin

ooh well done

#NOKINGS New York City, NY

Harrisburg, PA — there are so many older women in banana suits at the Capitol holding antifa signs and none of that sentence would have made sense to me 10 years ago

Berlin, see you tomorrow! Saturday October 18th, 2pm, Pariser Platz #NoKings @demsabroad.bsky.social

“There’s been times where I have sat back in my house and really wondered how I was going to feed my family,” said one single mom of three. She warns that there’s “going to be pregnant women skipping meals so that they can feed their toddlers”: www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

i feel like im going crazy bc housing prices are crushing me and every day i wake up and see the political convo being "is cantaloupe is woke?" "did TGIF change its logo?" "are we renaming new mexico to new america?"

Today’s capitulation. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Since the first time I had birria (I think it was at the taqueria el oso pop-up in Berlin) I thought it had delicious similarities to Taiwanese or Chinese beef noodle soup. Last night in Santa Cruz I got to eat birria ramen, and a personal Asian-Latino fusion dream came true. Thanks Tacos El Chuy!

Finding time to write for myself is a perennial struggle. I worry it mean that I'm not taking enough time to think -> some meandering thoughts in my latest post on my personal blog powen.net/not-writing-...

Finding time to write for myself is a perennial struggle. I worry it mean that I'm not taking enough time to think -> some meandering thoughts in my latest post on my personal blog powen.net/not-writing-...

I’m sure a Google Maps product manager got promoted for this brilliant feature that sends you (checks notes) identical notifications multiple times an hour after searching for restaurants. #enshittification

Highly recommend listening to this episode. Paraphrasing what stuck with me the most. I listened yesterday. Dissents are important and are not about today. We are writing for a future society. We have a mandate to bear witness.

My friend and colleague Wesley Morris and I had a very sobering conversation about America since the 1619 Project published and how it feels to be falling back under the veil that W.E.B. Du Bois so mournfully wrote about. I hope you’ll listen to this episode of Cannonball @nytimes.com

Since the announcements (and airport website!) are just calling this a “technical issue” of a “service provider,” want to share that things seem mostly okay at #BER #airport. Long luggage drop-off lines; security slow but not unusually so. HOWEVER, for boarding:

This story is worth a read, but it's so frustrating to see, since I know virtually everyone quoted in it (and the author) and ... there were *lots* of people warning of these coming dangers. Andreessen became a baby about his feelings long before taking offense to the slight from the Biden admin.

She “said that she tried to tell the agents that her baby was due w/in days. 'OK, your baby is going to be born here, but you're from Mexico, right?' they responded. 'I was born here,' López Alvarado later told Spanish-language media. 'I was born in Los Angeles; I was born in Hollywood Hospital.'"

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

This story — which asks what happened to all of those newsroom DEI jobs, committees, and promises from 2020 — is the hardest one I've ever worked on. I hope you'll spend some time with it today. www.niemanlab.org/2025/09/from...

The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph: link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...

Good morning. Immigrants are #HereToStay.

1. The elevator accessibility situation in Germany is steadily improving, but problems remain, especially with the Berlin S-Bahn. Some links to news stories from the last month or so. 🧵

I want to explain a few things and then it might be clearer why UK trans people are upset. In 2001 I married my wife, Sylvia. In 2005 I started medical transition. (1/13)

Made it to Amsterdam where it’s a beautiful Sunday evening: many thanks to the train deities for looking out for me… and the view from the upper floor. A brief idyllic moment before the excitement of #OSSummit revs up. Say hi and don’t miss my sessions on Tuesday 📌

We're at #OSSEU next week! Look for Powen Shiah, Mirko Swillus, Tara Tarakiyee, & Paloma Oliveira in Amsterdam 🇳🇱 Here is what we’re up to: Panel “Securing Europe’s Open Source Infrastructure: A Technical Case for an EU-wide Sovereign Tech Fund” 📅 Tue, August 26 ⏰ 11:00 📍 D203 (Elicium Levek 2)

When a TikTok influencer mocked the makeup of Turkish German women, the ensuing debate reopened old wounds between the homeland and the diaspora www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

I doubt a Black reporter could have done this story and been "invited in." But, apparently, the Times does not consider that this fact may bias their story? How is segregated access "objective?" Whiteness is a credential often presented as neutrality.

man it's so perfect that the shutdown date is at the end of sept. bookending Eternal September, 9/93-9/25 arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025...

We’re having another #Kreuzberg Kiez pub night w/@demsabroad in #Berlin tonight at Südblock (at Kottbusser Tor) starting from 7pm. Looks like perfect weather for an evening get-together outdoors: www.democratsabroad.org/adonisabuyen... RSVP not required but appreciated! #americansabroad #demsabroad

Spotted earlier today in #Berlin #Kreuzberg

If you cannot go to the bathroom at work, you cannot go to work. If you cannot go to the bathroom at school, you cannot go to school. This effectively bans transgender people from a broad swath of public life in the UK

really feels like housing affordability is one of the most important political issues of our time, affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and everyday our mainstream political discourse is about whether sour cream is woke or not

World War II pro-American propaganda.

new piece from on the 60th anniversary of the voting rights act, and what the law has meant for american democracy www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/o...

Excellent (as always) explainer from @reveleth.com on the depressing return of sex testing in athletics. If you're interested in this topic and haven't yet, definitely listen to their podcast "Tested", which dives into this topic super deeply from the science, historical & human angles!

when it comes to porn panics, we're repeating the mistakes of the past every damn day www.404media.co/steam-itchio...