When I say that America is ripe for cartelization, this is a great example of what I mean, actually.

"I grew up in a world that told girls they couldn't play rock 'n' roll." Happy 67th birthday to Joan Marie Larkin aka Joan Jett , Born today 22nd September 1958 #photooftheday #JoanJett #ClassicRock #MusicSky #photography 📸© Jesse Frohman

We’ve beaten this shit before. There is a solid precedent.

Looking forward to Tuesday to be honest

These guys are longing for the good ol days when you could simply lobotomize and institutionalize your aunt, when you could punish your wife for your child being autistic, etc. That's as much part of their nostalgia as leaded gasoline

Im pretty sure the Venn diagram of Christian MAGA adherents and people that bought junk from late night As Seen On TV ads in the 80s & 90s is a damn near perfect circle

Christian persecution in America is best defined by this image: No actual struggle, wearing clothes that cost more than my entire wardrobe, polished cross instead of rugged, and surrounded by crowds of fellow hypocrites cheering on bigotry who believe they're the victims.

Guitar of the Day

Just over on @cnn.com leaning into #newspeak But enlighten us. What exactly is a “chief loyalty enforcer?”

These guys play Christianity on Easy Mode

Technologically advance a band: Pink Droid Cybersmith Titanium Maiden The OnlyFans Pistols Ozempic Lizzy Alice in Carbon Fiber Meta & The Holding Company

watching even a few seconds of the kirk funeral makes it clear a large quantity of this country is ready for full on nazi authoritarianism and we have to really grapple with how much we need to put a stop to this as quickly as possible

oh. Cool

If you happen to subscribe to First Things, I strongly recommend reading Matt Maguire's outstanding essay on how technology (esp. AI) is undermining much of what made humanity a worthy enterprise. The essay is a crie de couer and a succinct rebuke of our mindless worship of technology.

Abundance means nothing without love and justice

given the number of people necessary to make this happen I guess we have our answer regarding whether airmen or their officers would refuse illegal orders

I am here for whatever this is. Much aura, totally locked in.

[Zuckerberg blowing out a huge puff of smoke] “Like what about Facebook but it’s on *your face*? Like a computer on your face. A face computer. That’s money right there.”

Tom Homan just weeks after taking money in the FBI’s sting operation.

There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.

Seems wrong to characterize the Kimmel affair, as I’ve seen some people do, as “corporate censorship.” The but-for condition was a direct threat by the FCC chair; that’s state censorship.

Authoritarian theocrats in prestigious positions whose entire politics is “the state should force my religion on everyone,” which they rightly know sounds bad, so they use euphemisms “common good” and “civic purpose,” which they wrongly think sound good. Harvard law prof Adrian Vermeule is another.

He, truly, is their George Floyd, and in that respect, you can see how the right views the left; they think this is what we're like

Guitar of the Day

Some Sunday morning predawn vibes by way of the guitar stylings of Mr. Andrew Synwiec

It just really sticks in my craw that the Right takes and twists shit like “woke” and “cancel culture” and then their meaning of it then gets laundered through major mass media via mush brained pundits. I’m more more Huxley than Orwell, but George was right about language.

When the James Lindsay types starting doing performance 'hoaxes' on humanities academics to try and instigate dogpiles and abuse / defund their departments, there was a definitely a sort of haughty air of confidence from the sciences that they'd be immune. Well, look where we are

lol. Emil Bove intervened. The guy that Senate Republicans just confirmed for a lifetime position on the federal bench. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...

NASA safety panel warns Starship lunar lander could be delayed by years NASA safety advisers say they doubt the lunar lander version of SpaceX’s Starship will be ready to support the Artemis 3 mission as planned in 2027.

Even if you take the most lenient possible interpretation -- that SCOTUS has made it increasingly hard to prosecute bribery and corruption -- you still have to ask what kind of crooked-ass administration hires a guy who just took $50k cash.

I'm coming around to thinking of Trump/MAGA functionally as just a giant LLM slop producing administration. It just reruns old stuff and connects it all in these weird uncanny valley ways.

It's Saturday afternoon. Please enjoy the blues inflected guitar stylings of Mr. Stefan Hauk performing live at Augustibluus (2025) www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_MG...

this is such a good point

I don’t know how many of you are following this, but the new H1B stuff is absolutely insane. Tech, medicine and science professions all attract many people to the US. There are around 750,000 H1B holders in the US right now. Trump has said the companies that bring them in have to pay $100k a year.

The White House has chosen a truly extremist step that will kneecap American research and innovation. It is an additional bomb dropped on the US higher education system, illegally and recklessly, that will end up harming every Conservative and Liberal American.

H1-B visas are used for international medical graduates that want to pursue residencies at US hospitals. Residents are working doctors who treat patients. Instant physician shortage.

Guitar of the Day

4:30 p.m. on a Friday, and there are *5* emergency applications from the Trump administration pending at #SCOTUS: 1) Slaughter (FTC removal); 2) Global Health Council (pocket rescissions); 3) Cook (Fed Board removal for "cause"); 4) Orr (gender identity on passports); and 5) Noem (Venezuela TPS).

It’s nigh impossible to get my cat into the carrier. He simply won’t get into it. And yes I’ve done the leave it out for weeks, make it fun, put his treats, bedding, etc in it. He just will not go in. And he’s a BIG Siberian, hard to waddle him in a towel that he can’t get out of…

It's Friday so here's Van Halen live from 1982 on the Diver Down tour

The legitimacy crisis isn't a hypothetical future danger, it's here.

just reorient culture, bro. that’s all we have to do: reorient the culture. just take “the culture of the united states” and reorient it, basically

No. Nope. Not gonna happen.

Guitar of the Day

It is Friday. I have managed to throw my back out in the stupidest, most incredibly embarrassing way possible.

Gentle reminder that in the late '50s, the U.S. government did not censor comics. Comics companies censored themselves. Not sure why that crossed my mind today but there it is...