“If all the names in the Epstein files are released then our entire system will collapse.” Works for me.

My novel THE MISCHIEVOUS LETTERS OF THE MARQUISE DE Q (m/f/x, historical fantasy romance) is part of this Valentine's Day romance bundle on itch with 28 other books! On sale until Feb 14 itch.io/b/3515/valen...

i may be an agender hot mess but i'm an agender hot mess with a poetry book!

Yo, I love Prince Yu and think he’s a great character and late-stage antagonist BUT he is such a hypocrite. When his brothers are in trouble it’s all smug laughter w/him. When he’s in trouble it’s just a national tragedy and grave injustice he foments armed rebellion. What an asshole (affectionate)!

Collectively, we gotta get more comfortable acknowledging that Musk is one of the dumbest motherfuckers alive.

I’ll delete my Discord before I give them any of my actual identification information.

Discord leadership only people on planet who think adding age verification to Discord a good idea: aftermath.site/discord-age-ve...

I mean, he pissed me off in the first 5 episodes of the show. They’re not special!

Imagine being so racist you throw a temper tantrum about a devastatingly beautiful demi-goddess being played by a devastatingly beautiful top tier actress, but you’re fine with Matt Damon playing Odysseus.

Life Lessons I learned at 12 while shooting cans in the backyard:

One of the things bothering me about how people are responding to the Epstein files is that there are tons of conspiracies being created and spread about what’s in them, rather than people just believing the victims like they could have been doing for years now

I don't know if non-lawyers understand how insane this statement is. I honestly can't think of anything remotely comparable in non-lawyer speak. I guess the closest would be a surgeon saying "Imagine if I had to wash my HANDS before doing surgery!"

Thinking about whoever said that by accepting a meal from people and then arresting them ICE agents broke a cultural taboo that was invented by, like, the first humans to set up a tent

The reformist position is that they want the functionality of a vigorous anti-immigrant deportation machine but maybe it would be nice if it wasn’t staffed by thuggish violent assholes, but that’s who signs up to work in the deportation machine!

Portland, OR., Mayor Keith Wilson: "To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave. Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame." www.portland.gov/mayor/keith-...

A note from our editors:

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

Liam was taken from Columbia Heights, the town just south of my high school in Fridley and just north of the Arts district in NE Minneapolis. I spent a lot of time with friends there after extracurriculars. News of his abduction completely broke my heart. I’m glad he’s home. #Comics4Liam

minorities willingly choose to serve white supremacy all the time. race essentialist thinking is a mistake

Discourse about to get annoying now that we know the Border Patrol agents who murdered Alex Pretti have Latine names, huh. With great reluctance, let me say the following for those who are shocked by or want to make something out of this fact: 1/

Today on LaT Is On Her #NirvanaInFire Bullshit, I want to talk about this little exchange (incl. Zhen Ping’s face), the poison of the bitter flame, and why I’m still mad, months later, about someone calling Prince Jing stupid because of his “blind loyalty.” First up: what are we even doing here?!

the entire administration is a pit of vipers but we should hand whoever is trying to shank Stephen Miller more knives the absolute worst of the cruelty always comes back to him, get him out of there

The agency she runs also needs to be dismantled. Not reformed. Not retrained. Not restricted. Dismantled. Anything less is enabling and upholding fascism. Make an actual effort not to be a feckless quisling in this moment.

So keep pushing. Anything short of ICE’s abolition isn’t nearly enough. And I’d say that even ICE’s abolition should only be the start of ending the violence that came to feel “normal” under Trump.

The problem with symbolic compliance isn’t just that they fall short of ending violence. It’s also that people duped by the symbols will switch sides to defend the oppressor, emboldening them to become more violent and violate more civil rights than before.

The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.” That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.

This is the GM firing an assistant coach and hoping that will be the end of the questions, except with fascism.

#NirvanaInFire I do think it’s kind of neat that the episode where MCS & Meng Zhi have a whole conversation about the lonely path Prince Jing now walks is the same episode in which Lady Liu is introduced. (Mind you: I want to punch both of them in the throat during that conversation. ☺️)

Read:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and some agents are expected to leave Minneapolis tomorrow, AP source says.

I'd like to take a step back from the debate of waiting until the midterms versus revolution to point out that both those options involve a tremendous amount of suffering for Minnesota between now and then. You should consider supporting the movements that are already growing within Minnesota

Just signed up for Aftermath to expand my pop culture horizons — and I’m glad I did because this was such an interesting read!

Make spaghetti. Embroider something. Dance till you sweat. Write three postcards to people you love. Tie-dye a sweatshirt. End today having put something new into the world.

This is why we had Jim Crow instead of truth and reconciliation after slavery ended. People are so quick to absolve anyone who pays lip service to changing their mind about human rights violations instead of letting them live with the social consequences of their words

Have you written a piece at least as long as “Where Woke Went Wrong” in which you sincerely reflect on why it might have taken you so long to change your mind and get on the same page as those with whom you now agree about the state of things? Have you posted a thread explaining this? If not. Well.

This guy wrote an article called, “Where Woke Went Wrong,” in which he claims modern movements lack the respectability of the Civil Rights Movement, among other bad takes. I’ll provide a couple highlights that show why he’s posting this.

On top of everything everyone else has already said, I just want to point out there is a massive difference between a random citizen who has not been clued into history/politics making this realization and a journalist or political commentator who has made knowing these things their profession.

Bluesky idea: if people just coming to realize that facism is bad because it hurts them are upset that people who understood the threat (& were treated like a bunch of hysterical Cassandras for years because of it), maybe they should learn to sit with their fucking discomfort.

because y'all still want the privilege of being seen as well-respected thought leaders saying Very Intelligent things on TV. if y'all would sit your ass down and listen to the people who have been right for over a decade, maybe we'd be more copacetic.

What a relief that they’re calling for a general de-escalation of tensions, since it’s hard to tell who’s at fault, the people murdering people or the people who aren’t doing the murdering.

A public health giant has passed. “Among public health professionals, Dr. Foege was almost without peer… In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest honor given to a civilian.”

It’s the incurious vapidity for me. “I like him, so I just assume he doesn’t share any of his boss’s beliefs. I’m not gonna ask or anything to confirm this, though. That’s too hard.”

Fuck em.

This was Episode 6 and I stand by what I said in this thread BUT in watching it just a few minutes ago (hush. i’m snowed in and the YT livestream is back to the beginning), it dawned on me that MCS is also likely just a little put out that Prince Jing isn’t deferential to him. #NirvanaInFire

“Wokism” was the only force holding this back for a half century. They knew they had to sour the public on public virtue, fairness, decency and responsibility first by slurring them as “wokism.” Calculated.

Worth remembering that they all lied in their original reports because they had no idea Holliday was filming them

Once you understand that you're dealing with murderous liars, you stop entertaining what they say as possibly credible and legitimate. The fight against them is about stopping them from terrorizing and killing by any means, not winning debates about your reality versus theirs.

Absolutely reprehensible that AG Bondi is offering ICE stand down in exchange for access to voting rolls. Outrageous and disgusting. It shows ICE is in Minneapolis is not for law enforcement purposes. Instead it’s a way to stir up shit in blue states and extort them.

Now if we had real opposition this is something leadership could do. But Jeffries and Chuck are too busy having drinks with their friends in the administration