Ta-Nehasi Coates is doing a lot of things with this essay, but one of the most important is fearlessly using examples of anti-trans hate to describe Charlie Kirk's politics. The contrast between his choices and those of other writers for major legacy outlets is revealing.

WSJ just retracted its report that the shooter’s ammo was engraved with “transgender and anti-fascist ideology.” It smelled like bullshit from the beginning, and every conservative who ran with it should be shamed into obscurity.

Behind the scenes, @stinadale.bsky.social, @nothingunfinished.bsky.social, and @stevenmps.bsky.social have also done a TON of work to take on new leadership roles and manage an ever-challenging budget. The environment for all this is as brutal as ever, financially and otherwise, but they press on!

A few months back I stepped down as publisher of @tonemadison.bsky.social, grateful and relieved to leave it in the hands of three wonderful colleagues. They’ve kept on putting out journalism that no one else in Madison is even trying to do. They need your help, because reader support is everything

Any amount you could give would be deeply appreciated. And most of it will go towards paying the Madison-area writers, artists and editors who make Tone what it is.

As someone who spent many hours listening to Kirk’s show on AM radio, I would say that he made Rush Limbaugh seem like Walter Cronkite by comparison, in terms of rhetorical tone and empirical rigor. The subtext of every show was “You don’t hate the left enough.”

When I see people online, even in jest, suggest that people living in Republican-controlled states should be abandoned because of their politicians, I feel a deep heartache. New York CREATED Donald Trump and none of y’all are ever talk about it the way you disparage Alabama or Mississippi.

Immigrants are a social good, anti-immigrant propaganda is basically all lies, and any approach to the "problem" that doesn't start form those two points is worthless

I'm incredibly proud of the work we do at Tone Madison. Please support us in any way you can.

Check out former Tone Madison Publisher Scott Gordon's thread and reporting on this important issue. The Dane County Board will vote on this proposal at its 7 pm meeting tonight.

take a look at what these clearings accomplish. they take dentures from people who cannot replace them. they took a woman’s husband’s cremains and urn. identity documents and family history. if you support any of this, no matter how central “NO MAGA” is to your sense of self, you are a monster.

Tone Madison hopes to raise $5,000 by September 12 to help us stabilize and grow. Your support allows us to do more high-quality investigations, cultural deep-dives, and biting commentary. Help us build a more-expansive future—with more information, art, and ideas. 🙏 tonemadison.com/donate/

incredible that three overpaid consultants in a trench coat can get media play by urging democrats not to use words that literally no one in mainstream politics uses

So much about our current national situation is explained by the fact that a substantial proportion of Americans truly believe that “feeling somewhat uncomfortable” is the same as being the victim of an actual crime

500 billion dollars and the robot can't even count to twelve

Today I learned that when sugarcane farmers burn their fields, a “black snow” falls for months on communities downwind. Under FL law, burns are prohibited when the wind is blowing into wealthy, white neighborhoods. They’re only allowed when it’s blowing into poor, majority black areas.

Had a great conversation today about fascism, masculinity, and how to inoculate young men from the far right.

"Why would I want to read something nobody could be bothered to write?"

to recap, Mamdani is challenging the incumbent mayor, but something that has happened under the incumbent mayor's watch puts Mamdani "on the spot", not the incumbent mayor. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

It's #bandcampfriday! Our industrious Music Editor @stevenmps.bsky.social is planning a fourth compilation of local music for the fall. In the meantime, you can pick up our three prior comps—a total of 104 tracks by local artists—for just $40! TO GROW A GARDEN from 2022:

A new study concludes that the uninhibited pumping of groundwater by farmers, cities and corporations around the world now accounts for 68% of the total loss of fresh water at the latitudes where most people live. By @abrahm.bsky.social

No, Pete. Nobody needed to hear your bs about this. Just say "15 girls want to play volleyball on the girls team. I say let them." And then move on to something that fucking matters. Jesus H.

it's brainwashing to turn an entire election on its head because 15 trans girls want to play fucking volleyball or whatever. God who gives a fuck. bsky.app/profile/angr...

i'm not voting for any candidate that won't full throatedly support trans kids playing whatever fucking sport they want to. I'm so irritated with these focus group tested answers about a subject that liberals and Democrats are literally being brainwashed into thinking is a critical issue.

I beg rich AI pushers to actually show an example of AI working at a certain task before demanding that we replace large parts of our government with it

On the left is a post today from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. On the right is literal Nazi propaganda from the 1930s.

This belief is a huge part of what has gotten us here: An obsessive insistence that “debate” should take precedence over all other values, including the *merits of the thing being debated.* It is a value antithetical to journalism and they keep pretending it is the only thing journalists should do

🎙️The Red Scare was a time of large-scale conspiratorial fear of the federal government, @risenc.bsky.social tells @stinadale.bsky.social, and it's still playing out in the ways that progressive ideas get painted as un-American. Listen here: www.wortfm.org/when-progres...

This entire panic runs on weaponized pedantry. It's true that studies have not proven that gender-affirming care reduces *completed* suicides but that is because teen suicide is very rare! So few kids transition that you can't do a study large enough to get statistical significance.

The "misinformation" in question here is that gender-affirming care reduces suicides among youth. It merely reduces depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal ideation. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Zohran Mamdani’s plan to tax the rich is a 2% tax on income over $1 million. If you make $1.1 million, you’d pay an extra $2,000. Watching working class conservatives and politicians completely meltdown about this is wild.

Beast of a story from Sarah Eichstadt. @stinadale.bsky.social did a ton of work guiding it along—almost a year elapsed between pitch and publication. It’d be a big lift even for a much larger publication. My Tone Madison colleagues are kicking ass even amid big leadership transitions. Support them!

The only reason Republicans have a reputation as "fiscal hawks" is that the press refuses to tell the public basic facts about what they do when they are in office.

Russia was kicked out of the G8 in March 2014 exactly BECAUSE it launched its war in Ukraine by invading and forcibly annexing Crimea.

“Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million,” it says, “it wastes $4 million.”

Unlike the right-wing fascists gutting public goods, "[w]hat I’m critiquing is not the existence of those institutions—I want good schools, public health, public transit, etc.—but those institutions failing to meet the values inherent to their mission and to public service in general."

So all the major pubs steal from her and go to great lengths not to link out so if you want to read about shit three days before it shows up as Breaking News in the WaPo you should subscribe to The Handbasket.

@tonemadison.bsky.social is at @giantjonesbrewing.bsky.social with a bunch of pizza from @ianspizzamke.bsky.social. Sun’s out, garage door’s open. Come say hi!

Rice is great for when you’re hungry and want 2,000 of something.

I wish journalists would stop framing political news as wins or losses for politicians or political parties. It’s an abrogation of our mission. Why do we keep doing this? Is the spending bill a win or loss for the American people? Who does it help? Who does it hurt? Is it sound policy? Fiscally?

Arguments in the birthright citizenship case made clear Trump wants nationwide injunctions gone so he can nullify Americans’ constitutional rights more easily. Whatever other issues you might have with them, that’s the bottom line here www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This is HUGE. For those wondering why due process is essential for EVERYONE. This is why!

Today's the last day to apply! Come join our worker cooperative and lead our politics coverage!

Andrew Sernatinger digs into Metro Transit drivers' non-strike and the working conditions that prompted it. Art by Dan Fitch. tonemadison.com/articles/met...

You can read the whole thing here. In my wildest dreams, I would never have thought to accuse the Trump administration of planning something like this. This is clearly a crime, and DHS Sec. Noem and others should be impeached for it: www.cato.org/blog/50-vene...

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

The news media is crowded with people who aren’t here to newsgather. They make no research or investigative contributions; just personalities whose job is comparable to pumping out youtube reaction videos. They’re entertainers, not journalists, and they’re paid 5x what decent reporters pull in.

In this week's Microtones, @millbot.bsky.social celebrates the radical inclusivity of roller derby and the @madisonrollerderby.bsky.social community. 🛼 "[It] offers people the opportunity to dream, create, and then live in a version of the world we actually want, beyond what's offered elsewhere."