Imagine interviewing a victim of torture and independently confirming the details of his torture and then being told you can’t broadcast it because the people who ordered the torture wouldn’t give their side of the story.

Americans are taught to question others but have arrogant confidence in themselves. Therefore they go through life alienating anyone who dares tell them that they're wrong. Insulated in a membrane of ignorant opinions, no experts can break through. We demand confirmation - not truth. 🧵

The reason for my parallelism of Jonestown with the Cult of Trump is that Jones was a pretend-protector turned-sadist, who tortured his own cult into loyal followers. As Trump hurts veterans, farmers, tariffs... you will see that bringing harm to his own followers becomes a sadistic loyalty test.

Neil Young’s ‘Tonight's The Night’ remains the single most sinister and insinuating chronicle of the hippie generation’s inexorable drift towards the various death cults of hard drugs, compulsive consumerism and the politics of personal gratification. Part seeker, part fool. Let the bad times roll.

David Brooks just hung out with Epstein because his airplane came with a good deal on a burger plate & bourbon

The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.

In Boston, we like our protests with a whole lot of history. #teaparty #dumpICE #Dec16

Good. Robert E. Lee was a traitor who raised his sword against the government the U.S. Capitol represents. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Get a load of the new neighbors in Amerika Plads #Copenhell #Copenhagen

"In lieu of having a health secretary who is committed to keeping American citizens safe and healthy, we’ve been offered the tepid consolation prize of an expired midlife crisis that’s been in slow decay since the mid-90s."

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites. He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him. www.wsj.com/world/china/...

This repudiates a major basis for the passage of the Real ID Act in 2005, which had a bunch of asylum- and immigration-related requirements for exactly this reason.

There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

Bookmarking this to use whenever Republicans tell me how much they care about the national debt

Fonts are in the news, so I'm going to take the opportunity to port over an old thread: what was typography like in the Soviet Union? Spoiler: they did not just have 1 font everyone had to use. As a matter of fact, there were 39. One of them, you can see here, used to great effect for "Chernobyl."

Former Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who won his sole term in a huge 2008 upset, unexpectedly announces campaign against GOP Rep. John McGuire. Trump carried the current version of #VA05 56-43, but it could look a lot different if Democrats convince voters to approve a new map this spring.

Roberto Calasso edition

Justice Jackson to Solicitor General Sauer (just now, in Trump v. Slaughter arguments):

My org @fightforthefuture.org has been “de-googling” for the last year. We’re totally off Google suite, Google docs, Drive, Calendar. We’re using Signal and Element for chat, Nextcloud for docs, etc Planning to publish a “how to” guide for other nonprofits and activist groups soonish.

And Guantanamo is essential because…why? www.wsj.com/world/americ...

On #LostSpeciesDay, I think there’s still no finer work of art than W.S. Merwin’s elegy, “For a Coming Extinction” (1967)—even if its righteous, prophetic fury remains improbably, gratefully premature for its addressee, the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus): www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57936/...

13000 species! The incredible (10k+ recordings on XC!) Marc Anderson aka @wildambience.bsky.social contributes it: xeno-canto.org/species/Limn..., a frog from the Malay peninsula. Thanks for sharing Marc! #bioacoustics #frogs

Love all these guys and have seen Jimmie Dale many times, but live? Man, Joe Ely came on around noon at Farm Aid IV and torched a sleepy Hoosier Dome with a set ending on Butch’s “Boxcars” as a raging agrarian protest song. Only band to touch G’n’R that day—no survivors: youtu.be/k3vvsYAu0PI?...

Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat

Hagueseth

This is the funniest piece imaginable in the dull world of the otherwise sickly sycophantic tech review. For real. Read it, even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about printers.

Microbiologist Dr. Rita Colwell was born #OTD in 1934. She is recognized for her study of global infectious disease spread through water sources. Her research on cholera helped save 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 lives. She was the first female director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), 1998-2004. #WomenInSTEM

Brisk, sunny day in Copenhagen, but it’s 2:30pm, and the shadows are getting noticeably long. Payback for those long summer days…

Look me in the eye, then tell me that I'm satisfied. Are you satisfied?

Something led me tonight to Wharton Esherick's dictionary stand (via American Craft Council), which reminded me of his library ladder — one of my favorite things digital.craftcouncil.org/digital/coll...

Gift link: wapo.st/4ifEGDx

OK so wait. Trump talked to Bolsonaro last night and was planning to meet him “in the very near future”? Sounds to me like he was in on the escape plan. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Trump filling out his NYC DSA membership card to vote on primarying Jeffries right now

I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered. He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here : www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...

We need more honest language: Theft Tech (AI) Grift Tech (crypto) Death Tech (automated weapons and military surveillance)

👇👇👇👇

Billie Holiday ~ Paris, Olympia, November 1958

Shot, chaser 😱

"the Boondoggle Ranch"... we are living in Carl Hiaasen's America... everything is Florida now

Unexpected surprise last week, seeing a Camões sonnet in the São Paolo metro.

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

Peter Coviello isn't on Bluesky, but this definitely should be: lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

I can’t quite decide which line slaps harder: ‘the elaborate machinery of manufactured bewilderment and sour indignation‘ or ‘The author refers to the group as “conservative-leaning,” which, ok. I guess you could say Latvia was a little antisemitic-leaning during the war.’ lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

Sadly we HAVE been here before. Melanie Cervantes, Ya Basta (2017). Now one of many amazing works showing in São Paolo at a #COP30-adjacent exhibit, Histórias da Ecologia (Histories of Ecology), at @maspdobsky.bsky.social .

Question for the #HoosierDiaspora of @bginchi.bsky.social @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social @mattseybold.bsky.social et al.: Is it just me, or is this an odd name and logo for a joint that, given its emphasis on “auténtica comida indiana,” must have a menu focused on catfish and pork tenderloins?

Trying to figure out what #SCOTUS just did with #SNAP, and why Justice Jackson temporarily froze the district court's ruling? Via "One First," me on what's going on—and why I think Jackson's move was savvy, notwithstanding the awful circumstances that forced it: www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf

[Exit Clown.]