Kendrick, Joyce Carol Oates, Menswear Guy, and Isaac Chotiner are the Voltron of People You Don't Want Focusing on You

Harm to SNAP recipients, federal workers, and others is real. In a normal democracy it’d make sense to prioritize reducing that harm in the short term. In a rapidly backsliding democracy, harm is happening no matter what. Preventing authoritarian consolidation is the most harm-reducing move.

“Frog,” said Toad, “if I wash my dishes right now, then I will not have to wash them tomorrow, will I?” “No,” said Frog. “You will not have to.” Toad washed and dried his dishes. He put them in the cupboard.

Democrats, coming off a historic national protest against fascism and a country-wide electoral sweep:

Sitting here editing a high schooler's piece on how the upheaval surrounding SNAP has impacted her community and she's describing how devastation from a flood in February already cut resources and now people are lining up for a church's food bags hours before they start giving them out.

I loved this piece Meg! I mean, I'm sorry you collapsed, but that your family both took such great care of you AND wanted to take Dramatic Photos was hilarious. xoxo

On Saturday, I lost consciousness at our kitchen table. I only remember bits of before and after. I sat down, asked for a saltine, bit it in half and then rested my head on the table. The cracker disintegrated in my mouth as I fell to a deep place. www.pocketobservatory.org/its-babys-fi...

ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections

Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.

I'm super stoked that Colorado voted to fund free meals for kids for schools. (I've been saying lunches, but the program includes breakfasts, too.)

Normal people are just sick to fucking death of the cruelty and meanness

Never let them say you can’t be a mensch AND a hater

JUST IN: California has adopted Prop 50, the Democratic plan to redistrict the state, according to CNN. They called it as soon as polls closed.

FEEDING BABIES WON!!!!!

also huge shoutout to @lindseyboylan.bsky.social who was absolutely everywhere leading the anti-cuomo charge

Republicans thought they had a permanent hold over young men. They didn't. Spanberger wins men 18-29 by 14%, Sherrill by 10%, and Mamdani by a stunning 40%.

Young people in NYC absolutely showed out and there should be 1000 articles and profiles about this. Because we have had to put up with 1000 MAGA diner stories for years now.

There are more of us than there are of them.

They playing Not Like Us at the Mamdani election headquarters

MAGA wants to end competitive elections because they know people hate what they’re doing.

We have evidence now going back to 2018 that when Trump isn't on the ballot, it's grim scenes for Republicans. And he'll never (lawfully) be on the ballot again.

This piece about my breast cancer diagnosis was published this morning right before I went in for a bilateral mastectomy. Sharing it now from my post-op bed. (Everything hurts. I’ve decided to treat the pain as proof of life.) www.pocketobservatory.org/i-have-breas...

Do you live in an apartment complex? How about printing out some fliers letting your neighbors know that on a particular day of the week, u will be cooking X extra meals and that anyone who needs one can stop by your place at X hour to pick one up no questions asked? Can even leave them at the door.

I hope each and every one of the fascists who rule this country read this and choke.

If I could offer students one bit of…advice: be brutally traditional about what is printed on your degree. If you are first-gen or in any way non traditional, this goes double. Let rich kids get degrees in AI. You get something called “English”.

Waiting for his whiskers….Ive just opened my diary for #commissions should you be looking for a personal icon of your own or for someone special? #art #painting

www.bbc.com/news/article... "I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking."

The basic premise of effective protesting is that you want your movement to draw from as many corners of culture as possible, and the best way to do that is harmless jubilance. Centrist grandmas don’t want to march next to shifty anarchists in balaclavas, but a big goofy frog works just fine.

I always knew an effective protest movement would need to be nonviolent but given a lifetime I wouldn’t have guessed ours would be led by inflatable frogs. People remain endlessly beautiful.

Some folks who preordered are starting to receive their copies of Read This When Things Fall Apart! ❤️ The book is supposed to be published on November 4, but I am so happy some folks are getting it early. It's needed now.

the inflatable costume thing is an extremely smart tactic

Most of these people are deeply trained, or at least highly educated, in humanities. Knowing isn’t being.

To paraphrase Orwell, "if you want to imagine the future, picture AI-slop videos of everyone you love or respect being ritually humiliated--forever."

Some people might laugh but there's something actually important in this as I have heard others talk about how a fear of dying is palpable among fascists. They carry hell with them in real life.

We've entered that brief microseason where it's clear they meant "fabulous gourds", not "doing violence to pumpkins".

Photographer Katie Currid captured fans attending Chappell Roan's tour stop in Kansas City. The Missouri native said bringing joy to the Midwest's queer community is deeply meaningful to her.

Sounds like a you problem

Octavia E. Butler saw the future—and warned us. Aina Marzia reviews Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris, a new biography tracing Butler’s journey to literary legend, showing how her vision transformed both sci-fi and Black liberation. inthesetimes.com/article/octa...

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Who is Lee Greenwood…I really don’t know.

@bookshop.org is offering free shipping through today to support indie bookstores, so evergreen note: If you order either of my books, All the Gold Stars or An Ordinary Age, through Bookshop or an indie bookstore, DM me an address and I'll send whoever you ordered for a thank you note. 💛

ICE now very literally at war with Presbyterians

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”

This is so good. I sent a highlighted version to my teens. Thanks for taking the time to write this @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social defector.com/taylor-swift...

Alt text: 3 Men & a Little Lady movie poster. This is a hard disagree for me. The sequel is magical as fuck. As a kid, the big reveal in the church scene is still an all-time favorite movie theater experience. Its adventure, its romantic, its fun. But not everything is gonna be for everyone.