but if i'm not allowed to feed artists into my artist killing machine it's going to be basically impossible for the machine to keep killing artists. is that what you want?? and before you answer keep in mind this is a very expensive machine

Somewhere around 1am last night, when I was combing Zillow's aerial view to compare roofline shapes with a "Coming Soon" teaser photo a realtor posted for a house in a neighborhood we like, I started to think ... maybe house-hunting *isn't* having the best effect on my mental health! 🫠

I'm glad they did this and better late than never. But it would have been nice is this spine evolved when a racist mob came for the university's first Black woman president.

Write Now Philly has published an interview with @ashtonlattimore.bsky.social about her novel All We Were Promised. I’m happy that our student-interns get to talk to such interesting Philadelphia-area writers. writenowphilly.com/ashton-latti...

If the webpages existed before the term "DEI" was even in effect, seems like these purges might in fact be about something else! If we're going for accuracy, the headline should be "Amid purge of any content that doesn't solely glorify white men, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser"

Apparently a constitutional crisis is like the horizon - always just out ahead, “near,” “looming,” a glittering mirage we can always “approach” but never reach, no matter how many court orders the president brazenly defies.

It's Black Press Day. And the historic Black press understood what it was like to be targeted, surveilled, charged with crimes, even jailed. As similar threats loom, we should take a look at this history. Read/Listen/Share/Subscribe to Fortify here: nicolefcarr.substack.com/p/the-histor...

Also, it's worth asking whether news headlines should use the word "deport" for this. Deportation is a legal process with multiple steps (you might even call it "due process!"), & if none those steps were taken here then the admin hasn't "deported" anyone. It's perhaps "kidnapped" or "trafficked"!

The closest is this, which is still wildly off base. Presumably the reporter is capable of reading the court order themselves, using their eyes and ears to figure out whether or not the admin complied, and saying so. Instead, we get stenography of the administration going "Nuh uh" and call it news.

I literally just had to explain this to my mom, who is a very informed person, because the newspaper is covering it in such a passive and piecemeal way. Not only deported, but effectively sold into forced labor. It is GRIM.

This. I've been waiting all day for a single headline that states "Trump administration deports 300 in violation of court order" - the actual, undisputed facts of the situation. Instead, mainstream outlets have been twisting themselves in knots to avoid just SAYING WHAT HAPPENED.

Love to see Belarus shoved in there for cover, otherwise we'd have to start asking what all these countries have in common. 🤔

Happy Black History Month. Listen to, support, fund, and uplift Black people. #BHM #BlackHistoryMonth Black journos: go.bsky.app/QvS5FNb Black scientists: go.bsky.app/Ao3Qt9a Black academics: go.bsky.app/RyKSzcb Black democracy experts: go.bsky.app/6WTBzhX Black in tech: go.bsky.app/2RAbS3g

Woke up to nearly 2k new followers. Welcome! Stick around for history nerd-outs, media and journalism talk, bookish things, and very millennial-core pop culture stuff. I’m curious though, would someone kindly tell me where you suddenly all followed from??

Hi new followers! This seems like a good time to introduce myself, so here goes: I'm Ashton, and I write historical fiction that unearths overlooked historical Black communities and puts brave, complicated women at the center. My first novel, ALL WE WERE PROMISED, came out in April. Next one TBD!

RFK’s racist blathering harkens back to the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia where Black people—told we were immune—were asked to care for the perishing and neglected sick. 10% of free Black Philadelphians died.

A few words from the Prism team: This blitz of violent and fascist executive orders starting last night from and into today is meant to seed chaos and create deep fear and utter hopelessness. Media is critical to keeping the relentless deluge of fear spinning. They want your views.

Forgive me for history-nerding on main, but it's hilarious that there's such a clear hierarchy of assassinated presidents & nobody remembers the second-tier guys. Imagine getting elected to the nation's highest office & being murdered, all just to wind up the answer to an obscure trivia question. 😂

I don’t want to make a fuckin account to use my toaster. I don’t want to fuckin subscribe to software. I don’t want to create a fuckin profile to watch TV. I don’t want to fuckin register my whatever to unlock whatever. I don’t want to download a fuckin app to access anything. Death to new logins

Bring back paper menus. I shouldn’t have to use my phone just to order at a restaurant. And on the same note, lemme add a Disney-specific millennial complaint: Bring back paper fast passes at Disney World. Having to be on a screen all day booking ride reservations ruins the vibe!

So I finally watched The Temptations miniseries over the weekend, & now I'm in the mood for more music-world drama. #BlackSky please hit me with your best miniseries recommendations along the same lines! FWIW I've already seen The Jacksons: An American Dream (of course) and The New Edition Story.

I'm finally watching the Temptations miniseries like 30 years late, and "Ain't nobody comin to see you OTIS" has to be one of the all-time greatest lines in the history of film. #blacksky

Thanks to the support of our readers, Prism has gotten to do some incredible work in 2024. Together, we've covered: -intersectional movements demanding an end to genocide -surprising links between Planned Parenthood & Raytheon -groundswell of unionizing efforts growing the labor movement -and more!

NEW: After reviewing leaked documents, we have found UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to a treatment for thousands of children with autism across the country in order to cut costs. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal. www.propublica.org/article/unit... 👇

And what's the all-important opposing view being elevated? Viewpoint 1: This cabinet pick is a grifter and serial sexual harasser, factually. Viewpoint 2: Nuh uh! But even if so, being a grifter and sex pest is fine! It's good, even! Seriously, what are we doing here people?

I clicked this list ready to be mad, but then saw Jacob Anderson right up top where he belongs. His Louis de Pointe du Lac is THE Louis, full stop, forever. Give him all the flowers! FYI, if you haven't watched #InterviewWithTheVampire yet, you're missing out. www.vulture.com/article/best...

Watching professional scolds react to the UHC shooting is eye-opening. "We're all in danger if ppl resort to this kind of violence!" Baby, you're in danger *now* cause the insurance co won't pay for your meds. It's like they don't believe they're normal people, just temporarily embarrassed CEOs.

I'm also uncomfortable with people trying to solve America's structural problems with extrajudicial killings but you don't have to defend the US health insurance sector to make that point.

The whole underlying thread up and down, but… “Countries without private insurance tend to ration it” Unlike in the US, I guess, where your claim has a one in three chance of being denied by an AI bot with a 90% error rate.

Since we're all a little iffy on Jay-Z's music now, I feel like this is a good time to speak my truth: I think the original version of "Best of Me" with Mya & Jadakiss is a perfectly good song.

The notion that Trump is going to revoke birthright citizenship via some unilateral rewriting of the 14th Amendment is absurd, for one. But it’s also part of the conservative agenda to define who gets to be a “person” in this country. It’s a straight line to fetal personhood.

The best part will be when he explains that while the "freed slaves" historical context for the Reconstruction Amendments applies when the GOP wants to strip away birthright citizenship, it magically vanishes & the Amendments turn colorblind when they need to dismantle civil rights. 🙃

Because I’m mildly annoyed, if you’re looking for media/news folks to follow, I strongly suggest you look for ones with diversity and this one popular one I see is….not diverse at all. A good example: go.bsky.app/BmnETn7

"This is a country that takes little responsibility for the health and well-being of its citizens while effectively urging us to blame one another—and ourselves—for our precarity under an exploitative system in which all but a small number of us stand to suffer or lose much." from my book (🎁 link):

This healthcare ceo is hard to talk about because how much death can you cause indirectly before you’re a murderer who got murdered? How do you convince yourself it doesn’t count if you kill people with policy instead of a gun? What do you have to believe about life and systems and human worthiness?

My Roman Empire is how the word “Neanderthal” used to be shorthand for “stupid/primitive” until it came out that ppl of European descent have Neanderthal DNA & suddenly news outlets published a bunch of stories about how Neanderthals were very smart & innovative, actually. Like this: bit.ly/3D1CtuS

While we're at it, let's save some ire for the car insurance industry too. This fall, someone hit my car in a parking lot, so I did all the things: contacted their insurer, took the car for a repair estimate, notified the ins. co. when I dropped it off for repair. Guess what happened next? #uhc

Apropos of nothing, thru my spouse‘s job we have “ good” insurance. 5yrs ago, I had knee replacement &they made me jump thru 1 million hoops ofc (& we were out of pocket $$$$ too). 1 month later, they sent me a 5-figure bill for the full amount. They *retroactively* unapproved it & demanded I pay up

The other day I was pitching our Gilded Age course to undergrads: “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a nation where the wealthy had insane power and ordinary people were reoeatedly crushed by them until they lashed out in anger?”

While we're at it, let's save some ire for the car insurance industry too. This fall, someone hit my car in a parking lot, so I did all the things: contacted their insurer, took the car for a repair estimate, notified the ins. co. when I dropped it off for repair. Guess what happened next? #uhc

Make a donation to @mlk50memphis.bsky.social today and support Black-led, independent journalism that challenges the status quo! #GivingTuesday

My Roman Empire is how the word “Neanderthal” used to be shorthand for “stupid/primitive” until it came out that ppl of European descent have Neanderthal DNA & suddenly news outlets published a bunch of stories about how Neanderthals were very smart & innovative, actually. Like this: bit.ly/3D1CtuS

If y’all don’t get the …

The way this PALED in comparison to #IWTV, yikes. And I say this as a HUGE fan of the book. To this day I haven’t finished Season 1.

Has anyone ever sent their editor a novel draft with multiple alternate endings? Like fun bonus materials, a choose-your-own-adventure-bc-the-author-has-no-idea-which-is-right?? 😬 Asking for a friend whose lil historical suspense/mystery is on its 4th culprit and counting. #authorsky #writersky

Seriously, if you wanna understand why the American public has gone full-on “No One Mourns the Wicked” about the UHC CEO, start with this story from @prismreports.bsky.social and @debtcollective.bsky.social on how the US healthcare system ruins people financially even as it imperils our health.👇🏾

For no reason at all, just sharing this @prismreports.bsky.social and @debtcollective.bsky.social story on the devastating impact of medical debt. “More than 40% of adults struggle with medical debt thanks to the country’s extractive, profit-driven health care system.” bit.ly/41r4XIm

Is this a good time to bring up how when my second kid was born, I inadvertently had overlapping health insurance coverage with #UHC & another insurer, so each company pointed to the other & said "They're the primary, we don't have to pay!" so I got charged $14,000 out of pocket for giving birth?