Doesn't strike me as the behavior of a company that thinks its about to create robot jesus

This is the "testing the waters" phase of the playbook. The GOP ecosystem targets groups like Somalis, Haitians, and trans people specifically because they've calculated that the average person's passive disapproval won't ever turn into active defense. They're exploiting public apathy.

The swiftness with which Trump dismantled decades of meager, hard-fought protections exposed the limits of legal work. twp.ai/4itNhb

Reading Vivian Gornick's The Romance of American Communism and the opening line is "Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class"

Mandy Patinkin and the PS22 school choir singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," notably written by blacklisted socialist writer Yip Harpburg

Something to think on today for progressive/leftist causes: The legacy media is never going to like you, so what do you need to do to make them irrelevant?

You can tell no woman was near this story because $630 is not even close to the upper end for designer boots

"Mamdani will place his hand on two Qurans during the subway ceremony: his grandfather’s Quran and a pocket-sized version that dates back to the late 18th or early 19th century. It is part of the collection at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture"

We don't talk enough about this fit

Jealous

Catching up on the MN fraud story (the actual one not the Youtuber one) and it seems families were pretending to be child care providers in order to be compensated for the cost of the child care they already provide to one another so idk seems like there's only one solution

Springsteen ass headline

I know it's gauche to talk this way still in your 30s but while I was expecting the pop stars and actresses to become younger than me I was not expecting the mayors

Every New Year's I think of this poem from Marge Piercy: "How much have I dared in opposition? How much have I put on the line for freedom? For mine and others? As these freedoms are pared, sliced and diced, where have I spoken out?"

The clear point to me for this was the Wisconsin court races last spring. They lost, Musk was shelved, political gravity took hold

Already responded to thesis herw but even just from a strategic POV if you lower the standard for acclaim to "opposes the overthrow of democracy" you actually help move the conversation towards people who want to overthrow democracy

These are usually small businesses, 4-5 staff at a time being paid $11/hour for stressful, skilled labor. The witch-hunts that targeted them in the 80s were genuinely destructive to the landscape for providers generally

Peak

Zohran Derangement Syndrome (racism)

I think a lot of people would be perfectly happy with illiberal policies (like the ones MTG continues to support for trans people, immigrants, women, free speech, you name it) as long as they can keep the uniparty, Morning Joe framework of politics they've lived with their whole lives

Written by the father of a trans girl… “When society tries to police and exclude trans girls, it ends up policing all girls. Because transmisogyny does not just say, “Trans girls aren’t real girls.” It also says, “There is only one correct way to be a girl.””

Never take the day off when there are gay penguins to save

I was backstage at an event in a small, crowded room watching the actual program of the event on a television feed. I backed up towards the corner to make room for other people watching the TV and heard the smallest "excuse me" and turned around to see I'd blocked Katie Couric into the corner

I went to Texas to write about the sudden end of one of America's most successful experiments: the six decades of welcoming India's most educated and ambitious citizens. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/o...

2025 was relentless for many, including transgender people and our families. I wrote a year-end reflection on what it might take to be optimistic about 2026 and beyond

It's illustrative of the role transphobia plays on the right: no matter how fractured they get over Epstein, Israel, tariffs or anything else transphobia is still the glue that binds them

Seems bad!

"stuff happens"

Rewatching OBAA and forgot the first screener question to join the elite white supremacist cabal was whether you'd ever been to therapy

One wonders how many men want such a virtual lover that "never says no" when the point for such men is that she says no and they do it anyway

2025 was relentless for many, including transgender people and our families. I wrote a year-end reflection on what it might take to be optimistic about 2026 and beyond

Gwyneth in Marty Supreme made me want to rewatch The Royal Tenenbaums and I really do hope Wes Anderson leaves the dollhouses behind and comes back down to reality in his storytelling

On Marty Supreme and vampires

Compelling artists to perform for the head of state

Put on the movie Clockwatchers without knowing anything about it and I stg this was my reaction to the opening credits

I finally learned how to use Letterboxd btw boxd.it/5Nj6B

Transgender for everybody

Dying at this review of Richard Linklater's Slacker

Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony

Never beating the Dubya allegations

Went for a walk today and saw them wandering around an abandoned Logan Circle--complete charade. they should be home with their families!

merry Christmas one and all abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

Elf sequel where his dads children's book publisher has a business conflict with an Unnamed Major Online Retailer so Buddy infiltrates it's fulfillment center and unwittingly organizes it

Pope Leo condemns suffering in Gaza in first Christmas sermon

My lasting memory of Elf is seeing it in theater with this guy I had a huge unrequited crush on and for weeks after when one of us left a room the other would say in a deep voice "bye buddy hope you find your dad" and the other would reply "bye Mr. Narwhal" and in my head we kissed

Me: overstimulated by 14 hours of screen time, a quart of coffee every day, sleeping to podcasts and YouTube videos Zuzu Bailey: I can't sleep. I want to look at my flower

Still can't get over using the record player to make rotisserie chicken

Buffalo girls won't you come out tonight

I saw Marty Supreme and as someone who's pretty sure Timothee Chalamet is a social experiment we're all enduring I genuinely really loved it

Ordering some Indian food do you want anything