The NRA buys off Congress. No action on guns. The oil industry buys off Congress. No action on climate. Insurance companies buy off Congress. No action on health care. The list goes on and on. Money in politics is the root of our dysfunction.

Just a couple of days left to submit!

Another long day… The usual, please

I remember the worst day for crime in Washington D.C.'s history and whose fault it was.

Hey I found a Fox News host defending violent crime in Washington D.C. Named Pete Hegseth. Story from January 7, 2021.

Donald Trump Jr with a truth bomb! “Ask yourself this question daily and the answer becomes apparent!!” Sure does

Waiting open.substack.com/pub/margaret...

Hey there guys! Good morning!

Good morning. Take a breath. We have a long way to go.

He fired the black chairman of the joint chiefs for being woke and hired his brother.

The worst thing is not Trump's evil. You can fight evil. But what do you do about people who know better, but won't do better?

I am rereading David Joy's Those We Thought We Knew. Had to put it down a minute ago to sob. SOB. This time I know what's coming, so certain passages are even more of a gut punch than they were for my first reading. If you have not yet read this book, DO SO RIGHT NOW

Just read this graf. Share it with people you know who don’t pay attention to politics or news.

NOT NOW, MELVILLE. READ THE ROOM.

All that bootlicking and the New York Times still got kicked out of their Pentagon office.

Internet win today

My latest essay has been released along with art by my mother, Jane Desonier. Thank you to The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature for accepting both. deadmule.com/.../margaret...

A lengthy read, but so important as we are moving backwards in the arena of women's rights. I feel like we're back in the day of Rush Limbaugh calling women feminazis. Blake Lively and Amber Heard: When history repeats itself before we learn our lesson. open.substack.com/pub/celestem...

The color gradient after sunset last night

👇🏽🤔

In 1979, Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House. In 1986, Ronald Reagan tore them down along w/Carter’s clean energy funding. This sums up the difference between the two men & political parties. Investing in solutions for the future vs canceling progress to score political points.

These Republican assholes are gearing up to dump all over the police officers that protected their asses on 1/6 by trying to tell America we didn’t see what happened with our own eyes four years ago.

This is brilliant--though depressing--but also ultimately empowering in its insights. open.substack.com/pub/celestem...

Six little stories sum it up nicely... #goodness #wholesome

This might seem like a subtle difference, but it's an important one: you can wish harm to your opponents, or you can wish they cease to be able to harm. I like to think a lot of what I hope for is the latter if I cheer chaos and setbacks and scandals.

Per @aoc.bsky.social and co., I'm here to celebrate echo chambers and preaching to the choir. Which sings back, beautifully. "The primary assumption behind the idea that we shouldn’t preach to the choir is that one’s proper audience is one’s enemies, not one’s allies." harpers.org/archive/2017...

Christmas pondering: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Check out this featurette of our 2024 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductees: Joseph Bathanti, Anna Julia Cooper, Kaye Gibbons, Lenard Moore, and Ron Rash. Learn more about the NC Literary Hall of Fame at www.nclhof.org. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Qt... #ncwriters

Submissions for the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Prize close January 15th! Prizes of $1,000 (and possible publication in @ecotonemagazine.bsky.social), $300, and $200 are included. Entries must have relevance to North Carolinians. Learn more and enter now: www.ncwriters.org/programs/com...

Hello, everyone! We're glad to be here.

No women will lead a House committee for the first time in two decades after House Republicans revealed their list of committee leaders for the 119th Congress. No people of color were selected, either.

Please share so it's not forgotten! 🔄💙

What the hell are we even doing? Normalizing & green-lighting another psychotic madman. That’s what we’re doing. It’s f’ing insane.

"I did my taxes early for once, as we delayed going to our river home for spring break because Andrew’s daughter Erin gave birth to twins yesterday, three months premature." --from "Being There; or, Our Covid Baptism" by Margaret Donovan Bauer, storySouth, Issue 58 https://buff.ly/3Zx04er

You are enough♥️

It's 100% true.