✔️ @backwardsriver.bsky.social

Happy Father's Day! Here's some art from a vasectomy brochure.

There’s something interesting about billionaires, who all basically crave to be liked and adored and worshipped by the public while refusing to do anything at all with their wealth to make that happen through good works for the public

Bad news: The Kennedy tarp is still up. Good news: It doubles as an incredible projector screen for showing films of Trump and Epstein.

Idea for David Mamet: a sequel to Wag the Dog, wherein Antifa turns the Reflecting Pool hunter green with algae so as to deflect from the brilliant war executed by a genius conservative president and his team of warfighters. The twist? The head of Antifa is a woman.

Trump on the Reflecting Pool: "It's very strong. You couldn't, if you had a knife — I don't want to give anybody ideas — if you had a knife, you can't even cut it. So strong, so powerful."

Based on recent precedent, expect the U.S. to pay $300 billion to every team that beats the USMNT.

they're baghdad bob'ing the reflecting pool btw

Our current gallery show began in an archive. At the Newberry Library, artist Shane-Jahi Jackson surfaced the name of his own great-great grandfather in Pullman company records. But that archive sees Pullman porters and maids only as employees, not as full people. So we're building a new one.

Musk *wants* us to amplify the myth of him being omnipotent, all-powerful, cruel, untouchable, unaccountable & beyond the law. The idea is to make you feel small and weak. So you give up trying to hold him to account and give in. It's a psychological con-trick. 2

It's a perfect metaphor for Trump, who went full fascist on how the pool was filthy like the Dems, promised to purify DC, ignored the science hippies warning American Flag Blue would promote algal overgrowth, peeled off the shoddy sealant applied through no-bid contract trying to kill the algae...

There is no way I'd be going to any clandestine event hosted by a man who looks like he hunts homeless people for sport.

Know what TV show actually wouldn’t get made today? The Twilight Zone. Half of these fuckin’ episodes are about fascism.

he's pretty good at this.

Maybe 30 years ago I spotted this penmanship sampler ("Emancipation") in a box lot at an auction. It has been on our wall, framed, ever since. #JUNETEENTH2026

By the way nobody is arguing that the Iranian military isn’t diminished . It is (but now they have the cash to rebuild) A military exists to achieve an outcome. And the Iranian military achieved theirs. The regime is in place, we’ve promised to leave the region, we’re lifting sanctions, etc

I think Vance must have some sort of expanded Director’s Cut of the Sermon on the Mount. My copy doesn’t have a ton about tax policy.

When he's right, he's right

Honestly, I think the Post was one of his shrewdest investments. It bought Bezos a lot of good will for peanuts.

Has anyone ever lost a war as thoroughly and as fast as the US did with Iran? It was a stupid war to begin with, and I'm glad it's over, but this leaves us so far behind where we were with Obama it's not even funny, and we're giving Iran $300 billion www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/u...

Worth repeating: the fact that Trump won't get anywhere near the relentless negative coverage for this absolute disaster of a surrender that Biden did for prudently (if painfully) withdrawing from Afghanistan tells you everything you need to know about the media's motivations & incentives.

The JCPOA, which Trump called "the worst deal ever," ONLY lifted nuclear-related sanctions on Iran. Sanctions for human rights violations, terrorism, and its missile program ALL remained. Trump is promising to end ALL SANCTIONS, even those imposed by international bodies. Victory for Iran.

I can't even make a joke here bc this is just objectively funnier than anything I could say

This is a good point. The oligarchs, who if anything had it pretty easy under democracy, have thrown us to the fascist wolves. And they had another option. Let's remember that when reconstruction time arrives.

Right-wing hawks are embarked on a truly pathetic effort to blame the MOU’s contents on Vance, while absolving Trump of responsibility for the document that he signed and publicly describes as “a very strong deal.” www.mediamatters.org/us-iran-rela...

bro you were born in 1963, please be serious

Eagerly awaiting the five-paragraph essay by David Mamet extolling the brilliance of this very strong deal, particularly the parts in which he explains that Mamet was good friends with a now-dead magician and that Mamet's own father was a very smart lawyer.

>renames it to the Department of War >names himself the Secretary of War >fights one war >loses

executive order renaming it The Donald J. Trump and The Barack Hussein Obama Presidential Center

On March 9, 1975, Bob Crane's Bicentennial Minute aired on CBS. And then Kojak tangled with Ruth Gordon and Andrew Robinson.

Wait until 2015 Trump finds about 2026 Trump

No way G7 leaders actually believe Trump displayed "strong leadership" or secured a "breakthrough" with Iran or created a "historic opportunity" to prevent Iran from getting nukes. Desperate for the war to end, so apparently the plan is to praise literally anything that ends it, lying as necessary.

It has just struck me that Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice is one of those rare rap songs in which the police turn up and are extremely helpful, neatly resolving the situation for the protagonist

Obsessed with this 1735 illustration of hammerhead sharks from Japan

Trump rally = tribute to america And vice versa Might as well have neon signs pointing to fascism

Voltaire never said that. You're quoting neo-Nazi pedophile Kevin Strom.

Historical Photo of the Day: A view to the southeast at Lawrence and Western Avenues in Chicago on May 15, 1930, during surveying for the Lawrence Avenue conduit project. Learn about the work of the MWRD on our June 16 virtual tour ⬇️ https://mwrd.org/education/tours/virtual-tours

[taking the deepest possible breath] the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602,

more excited for the bugs than the lightning at this UFC shitshow if i’m honest

i really, truly, find this offensive

Talarico: Here's what real men don't do. They don't lie and cheat their way through life. They don't sell their soul to the highest bidder. Real men serve others, weak men serve themselves. So I welcome this debate. I don't think Paxton or Cruz are in a position to tell anyone what a real man is.

that’s right

Tree down at 2109 N. Howe after a storm, Chicago 1964. The block is now on the site of Oz Park.

Storm approaching the lakefront, Chicago 1957

Passengers wait ankle deep in flood waters at the Midway, Chicago 1957

Hungry Americans, you don't need those food stamps my husband took away from you. You just need independence! Take it from me, who has latched herself to the most loathsome possible man for the cashola.

I just want everyone to know that every single day 5 million people tell @bencollins.bsky.social that it's hard to differentiate between The Onion and real news now. Every day. Every hour. Every single time a new person talks to him. And honestly, I can't blame them with this one.

It's really fucking weird to have the president of the United States doing a surprise morning show call-in to do punditry about the war he started!