sometimes think about how a good chunk of early US colonization was by religious nutjobs too crazy for their home country. good thing that had no lasting impact on our culture!

Is there any precedent for powerful people claiming that a nonsentient process has a personality behind it that only they and their fellow experts can understand and speak for and it knows everything and can do anything and wants to help and also it will destroy us if we dont give it what it wants

Trying to think of anything I like about American culture that can be plausibly attributed to the English… Fahrenheit? Uhhh… I guess they did ship a lot of the other more influential cultures over here against their will so that’s something…

a lot of people spend too much time online. not me—I only consume the exact right portion and flavor of internet.

Let's be done with the "if there even *IS* an election" gotcha. We know. The thought has occurred to all of us. It's unhelpful. I'm going to continue behaving as if I'm not powerless—as if totalitarianism isn't inevitable. Because it's not, and I'm not.

Meet the Candidate Challenging Iowa’s Most Sacred Cow: Ethanol newrepublic.com/article/2064... via @newrepublic.com

"its hard to talk about a complex and multi-faceted subject that's also one of the most hotly debated topics on the planet that potentially touches many aspects of everyone's lives" yeah man this is the About Forty Words app. why're you trying to do all that on the About Forty Words app

The little buzzzzz is irritating but man I really like the follow drones at Winter Olympics. Like I’m luging right from my couch.

celebreties really need to get out of the commercial business. the appeal of a commercial cameo used to be “omg i can’t believe they got *them*", but now its just like oh i guess they paid them a bunch of money, coooool...

🇵🇷🎺🪇🪘💃🏻

Kind of gives away the whole game that all the crypto ads this year have been replaced with gambling and AI ads.

Ug this quad god guy seems like maybe a bit of a douche.

Curling is an Olympic event but shuffleboard, horseshoes and darts aren’t. Oh, okay.

It’s increasingly clear that decades of defunding humanities education has resulted in a functionally art illiterate society. Most people don’t know what good art is, how to discuss it, or even what it’s for. It’s a content commodity.

[watching men’s figure skating] Me: lotta merman costumes this year Wife: yeah, lotta… lotta harnesses out there… Me: yeah. hm… Wife: hm….

God the team figure skating commentators are pretty rude. “Now, remember, these scores matter for him. But his team is so far behind that it doesn’t *actually* matter.”

production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA

Cool thing we learned while signing our kid up for PreK this week: Iowa's Universal PreK program only covers 10 hours of schooling per week. The rest needs to be paid for either with other grants or out of pocket. What the fuck? Did everyone already know this? Then why do we call it Universal PreK?

I guess I missed the Parental Rights day in civics class. If we’re just making up social contracts, how about this: if my kid somehow gets polio because you’re a fuckwit, your life is forfeit. Fair?

There’s a cuss word outbreak in my kid’s daycare class and it’s really, really hard not to laugh. They treat it just like strep throat. “We’ve located ‘motherfucker’ patient zero. They have been isolated in an attempt to contain the ‘motherfucker’ to as few children as possible.”

one thing that would be cool, when prominent creators turn out to be terrible people, would be if we didn't have to go through this performative dance of insisting that their work was never good in the first place.

This cat is in charge and he doesn’t know about poster board. He’s not familiar with the concept of sturdy paper. But he runs the government.

The “thank you for your attention in this matter” always pisses me off because it reminds me that he just stole my attention without asking. I’m not giving this fuck my attention, he just takes it.

Yesterday I, a human graphic designer, got written feedback on a concept asking me to “generate” a more urban landscape in the next revision. Just want to restate that I am in fact a *living human*. This is how people are starting to engage with my profession.

Followup question: "What specifically are the DOJ's criteria for determining which broadly witnessed murderous incidents of state violence and/or state incompetence warrant investigation and which don't? And what about this incident doesn't meet those criteria? Sorry, double question."

Just got a new 100lb rescue dog and yeah probably should have waited till it wasn’t -20 outside to do that. Normal, well-acclimated dogs are chewing boots up out of boredom right now. What chance does this good boy have? He must think we’re the lamest humans alive.

You can tell things are going well in America because accounts with names like MovieTVFunZone are posting things like, "THE PIGS ARE KIDNAPPING CHILDREN AND PRIESTS. THE TREE OF LIBERTY DEMANDS TO BE WATERED"

Gotta remind yourself not to cry when you see the kid's signs. It's negative -25°F and tears are dangerous. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" "ICE GIT OUT YA FUCKIN DUMBIES 😡"

Holy shit Paw Patrol is so bad. We’ve resisted for as long as we could, but playmates have indoctrinated him. So now we let him watch one every few days and Jesus what a stupid show. So many better options out there.

we're getting all the downsides of cyberpunk (social alienation, ruthless hyper capitalism, digital mass surveillance state) but none of the promised upsides (cheap street food, cool jackets, super drugs that make you really fast and strong before they kill you)

aspiring to become a low info voter. gotta offload all this fuckin info somehow

lol after the absurdity of last summer, 10-25% tariffs sounds like baby stuff. If your extortionate tariff doesn’t have 3 digits are you even a big dawg?

a lot of people spend too much time online. not me—I only consume the exact right portion and flavor of internet.

@theswinerepublic.bsky.social has been an long-time essential follow here, and before on twitter, for a clear-eyed, informed, uncompromising position on Iowa's water quality. If you're sick of drinking treated farm runoff, if you want your kids to be able to swim in an Iowa lake, vote for Chris.

This dude rules. The accent is so perfect. Don’t even have to ask where he’s from. Hell yeah brother I hope work is easy tomorrow

Things might be dark but here’s this Blues Clues rainbow song my kid likes rn that comes out of nowhere and genuinely kinda rips youtu.be/zDMEJS539kY

Pretty hard to focus on work when every day is like “President signs order removing ‘mex’ from ‘tex mex’. In interview, Trump declares farts smell good. Secretary Noem demands nation close its eyes and face backwards for a few months ‘for no reason.’ CDC recommends injecting farts directly now.”

Is it really true that money can’t solve my problems, or is it just that being rich doesn’t screen for assholes with massive personality disorders?

Hey if you're going to conduct "targeted operations" in a place that gets weather, maybe learn to drive first.

Is this all mindnumbingly stupid? Yes. But speaking strictly as a designer, it’s a step in the right direction. The asymmetry is the project’s chief design crime. Not the chief *actual* crime, mind you… abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics...

I don’t think the coasts understand how nervous they should be when Midwesterners start talking this way

i agree, and i think it is more important than ever to go out into the world and exist. go to a local school board or city council meeting pick up from the restaurant instead of door dash buy the things in the store instead of online etc

sufficiently advanced postmodernism is indistinguishable from the effects of getting kicked in the head by a horse

Could an empire in decline do THIS? *launches deeply unpopular invasion cementing status as lunatic-led pariah state, its not clear what kind of move i was trying to do*

Tell you what nobody’s talking about sunsetting Obamacare subsidies anymore huh?

Sick of hearing this argument. The issue is not the building of a ballroom. The issue is the circumvention of oversight to demolish history and erect an ugly, disproportionate monstrosity of a ballroom, underwritten by bribes. apnews.com/article/trum...

Riding into the new year like:

january is cool because do you have the flu or did you just spend an entire month eating absolute garbage

Setting aside the public artist nonsense for a sec, I think my favorite word in this quote is “intolerant”. Intolerant of what? Asshattery? Douchebags? Racists? Murderers?