No kings.

Wow! France gifted her to us, and now they’ve captured what so many Americans are feeling on Independence Day. The values the Statue of Liberty stood for are no more. 📌 A stunning mural of the Statue of Liberty covering her face was unveiled in Roubaix, France, on July 3, 2025.

Walz: If you say you love freedom but you don't believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love is not freedom, it is privilege.

So, #Ravel was asked in 1930 (for L'Intransigeant) whether he'd be happy for a woman to conduct his music: 'Without hesitation. I don’t see in what sense a woman is inferior to a man. This idea of inferiority is an ancient idea.’

“American government, American foreign policy, and American trade policy are slowly being transformed, not to benefit Americans but to benefit the president, his family, and his friends.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

What happened today reeks of insider trading. Trump’s tweet wasn’t random—it was a signal. Someone cashed in, and the public deserves to know who and how much. Follow. The. Money. “This entire White House is one giant grift.” —Sen. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social shining a spotlight on it! 🔥

I called my senators today and told them I want Cory Booker to be the senate minority leader. We can’t hold hearings. We don’t have subpoena power. We can’t pass budgets. But we CAN filibuster, and we CAN change party leadership.

y’all are wild

NB: Stravinsky’s Petrushka was on the program, music from a ballet about Russian puppets 🎯

We just watched Trump & Vance do Putin’s bidding in the Oval Office & it was horrific. Not even two months into this administration & it’s a disaster for the free world.

NBC purges people of color. Was there a direct order from the co-presidents? Threat of a lawsuit? We are looking at re-segregation of American public life.

Elon Musk is easy for most Americans to hate because everyone has had a dickhead boss who is bad at his job and way in over his head.

I'm holding a citizen meeting in West Hartford to talk about what I'm doing and what people can do to fight back against Trump's seizure of government for the billionaire class. 1/ Unfortunately, we've maxed out the space, so here's a 🧵 on what you can do.

“Extinction Burst” as applied to MAGA. This is worth the two minutes of your time. Trust me on this one… (Part I)

The part of George Orwell’s 1984 that everyone forgets is how the music and publishing industries have been replaced by a machine that spits out songs and bad novels “without any human intervention.” The goal is to keep you from ever having to think.

Fantastic session with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jac Van Steen recording my 'Kiskadee' for broadcast on BBC Radio 3! So exciting to have this ACO / LOA Toulmin Foundation commissioned work cross the pond after touring performances around the US over the past year

Ah damn it turns out this whole political system relies on false assumptions about how big of an asshole someone could be

Was hoping I wouldn’t have to dust off this gem again.

There weren't headlines like this before the election because they wanted Trump to be elected so they could make money writing headlines like this after the election.

It's the big vote on the Climate & Nature Bill for science-led action this morning. #CANBill Is your MP planning to vote for it? Full list here: action.zerohour.uk If not, they may be wavering. It's not too late to tag them and urge them to vote for our future.

I'm trying to keep up with this; the party of pro-life has 1) ended cancer research 2) pulled us out of the WHO 3) Frozen communications and updates for the NIH and the CDC 4) raised prescription prices previously capped 5) out of Paris Climate Accords again 6) FDA and HHS gone Dark #MAGADeathCult

It’s find out time for so many of his supporters.

Mood, 2 weeks into 2025

Here’s a version that I found printed in Germany around a decade ago, ahead of its time. . .

A wonderful performance of my duo 'Le Chai au Quai' from a recent visit to the Conservatorio Superior de Música "Joaquín Rodrigo" de Valencia, featuring Javier Bernabeu Pina, bass clarinet and Juan Marín Llorens,cello.

2 very different presidents are highlighted this week A good kind moral man Jimmy Carter lies in state History has shown us all the good he has done An immoral self-serving man Donald Trump will soon take office The differences could not be more stark

Owners of news orgs “have an obligation, frankly, to protect the free press.” — Former Washpost cartoonist Ann Telnaes, speaking to @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social [We also learn that the Post lost 300k (!!) subscribers after Bezos killed the Harris endorsement.] www.npr.org/2025/01/04/n...

If you’re upset about President Biden pardoning his son Hunter, wait until I tell you about the time Trump pardoned his son in law’s hooker hiring daddy and made him ambassador to France.

I should’ve pardoned my son too. I let Jebus go through all that, and for what?

I was getting very frustrated by the male-dominated punditry about the election, and very little space being given to women, and the rage that so many of us feel right now. So I wrote something: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Old classic, new platform.

4/ Let’s rewind for a moment: The UK in 2018 was in chaos post-Brexit. The US? Trump was in office – another monumental shock. What united both stories was the same tactic: using psychological manipulation to win hearts, minds, and votes.

One thing I find interesting about the echo chamber complaint is that an echo chamber just won a presidential election. Put aside the convo of whether it’s “good” or “bad” for a moment. The far right has devoted enormous resources + time to building echo chambers & loathes spaces they don’t control

Let’s talk a bit about what you, an average German newspaper reader in 1933, would have learned about Hitler’s rise to power. Let’s assume you read the “Vossische Zeitung”, a comparatively liberal middle-class newspaper. In modern times, the Berlin State Library library let’s you read it online: 1/

Publisher: Do you want to put an LLM clause in the copyright statement? Me: Definitely. How specific can we get? Publisher: As specific as you like.

“As more of the popular vote is counted, it turns out that Trump’s victory came with the slimmest of margins — a few hundred thousand votes in key places slid him into office.” - @anitachabria.bsky.social lays out why Trump’s mandate rhetoric is 🗑

Thousands eager to escape Trump keen to snap up €1 Sardinian home, says mayor

Some pigs are more equal than others.

Like many of you, I’ve spent the last few days taking stock. Very much unlike 2016, I feel neither despair nor paralysis. Instead, I shift between a clear-eyed detachment and a grim determination. My latest: www.marytrump.org/p/dont-let-t...

If Epstein were alive, Trump would have given him a cabinet position.

A lot of the positions people like RFK jr. take (anti-vax, anti-pasteurization etc.) get described as “controversial.” They’re not. There is no controversy. This is long-settled science. The correct term is “stupid.”

Me in Byline Times… Trump’s election in the US now exposes the geopolitical weakness of a Brexited UK. We’ll enter an existential battle as to whether to roll in with Trump or the EU. Trying to navigate the middle ground is a fool’s errand. We must choose the EU. bylinetimes.com/2024/11/15/d...

I have chills watching this. Good chills. Good trouble.

Composer & pianist Fanny Mendelsssohn was born #OTD in 1805 - surely one of the most extraordinary composers to have published so little in her own lifetime. Thank goodness her scores are being given a new lease of life now - here's her phenomenal Piano Trio: open.spotify.com/track/2H3BWk...