Just finished another issue. Really good stuff! On to more adventures!

How much of the United States’ population is evil, racist, greedy or stupid? I’m glad you asked. Recent research suggests …

Trump calling anyone else “low IQ” is like the grand wizard of the KKK calling someone “racist”. Jasmine Crockett and AOC should challenge the mango Mussolini to a live IQ test. They’d be five questions in before Trump worked out which end of the pencil does the drawing lines.

I just read my first issue of @bcsmagazine.bsky.social and my word! Cracking stories. I’m now a subscriber.

I have lost 45 minutes trying to get Word to open properly on my iPad – so far! The filthy one-star review I just left has made me feel a bit better, but I’ve still lost almost an hour and now I’m in too foul a mood to edit, so thanks a bunch Apple and Microsoft. You owe me a day’s work. Wankers.

There may come a day when it is not a challenge for the handle to come off your umbrella. But it is not this day. ☔️

To be fair, this might be the most honest thing the tangerine traitor has ever posted.

Huge love and support to my American friends, today. Be loud, be proud, be many and be safe! #NoKings

What’s the best one-liner in movie history?

Bluesky, a little help? Any experts in #peppercorn / #leasehold law please? I'm trying to find the answer to a legal question, and am being given the kind of runaround you'd associate with a Wile E Coyote cartoon. Reskeets appreciated, thank you! 🙏

*sigh* It appears to be time to upgrade my laptop. The trusty old 2012 MacBook Pro just isn’t cutting it anymore – seems like every week I lose support for some piece of software I’m using. Farewell, trusty servant. It isn’t you, it’s m— no, hang on, it’s you. It’s definitely you. 💻 🚫

Just received an email offering me a customised list of “book stroes in the United States”. Thanks, buddy, but I think I’ll pass.

@imogenwrites.bsky.social 👋 Really enjoyed talking with you over the con, Imogen. Just think: in another timeline, we could both be facing down harassment charges if we’d reacted differently to MAGA-hat-guy in the casino! Enjoy the last day!

Conflux: where you can make a joke about the Kelvin scale and everyone gets it. 👍

CANBERRA I AM IN YOU

I am in line to board my plane but my Fitbit isn’t. Damn their insecure wrist straps. ☹️

On the train into Melbourne and thence to the airport for my flight to the nation’s capital. Conflux 19, here I come. Looking forward to catching up with old* friends and making new ones. * Look, sorry, but I don’t think there’s any point denying it any longer 🤷‍♂️☹️😂

Breaking news: Rand Paul literally doesn’t know what ‘literally’ means.

Trump is now a matter of months away from decreeing that all government buildings must be made of cheese. Coincidentally, Don Junior and Eric will have invested the Trump family business heavily in dairy farming just days before this executive order.

What’s got two thumbs and just saved $150 *and* got into the con hotel for Conflux?

Calling all pigeons. Repeat: calling ALL PIGEONS! Please report to the Capitol, your country needs you.

reminder: Jimmy Kimmel is enough of a mensch that he devised a segment on which actors who are just short of having enough work to qualify for union healthcare come on his show and deliver a single line of dialogue deadline.com/2024/07/jimm...

Great illustration of a great story. By Crom.

Hey, @paulcornell.bsky.social, look what I just got! Looking forward to diving in! (Please pardon the pun)

A colleague is on the phone trying to explain to a courier the difference between pick-up times and delivery times. She has been doing this for 15 minutes or so. It’s all quite surreal. I’d have thought familiarity with this concept was central to a courier’s business. Not so, apparently. 🤦‍♂️

This is wonderful news! @gracechanwrites.bsky.social is one of the brightest new voices in Australian SF. Her short fiction is terrific and her debut novel, Every Version of You, is a clever and moving look at the allures & pitfalls of virtual life. Can’t wait to read her next book!

With Meanjin, my guess is that MUP are just waiting till the fuss blows over. To help keep the fuss going, you could write directly to: -the chair of the MUP board, Warren Bebbington [email protected]. -the Vice-Chancellor, Uni of Melbourne, Emma Johnston - [email protected].

“Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who was appointed as a senior adviser to the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy” The prosecution rests, Your Honour.

Still not dead? Fine. I guess I’ll go and read a book, then.

So you’re telling me there’s no change in his condition so the only thing that’s dead is his soul.

I use Reedsy to keep the work flowing when the organic queries via my website slow down. I’ve had a sudden flurry in the last few days, and spent almost my entire working day yesterday replying with clarifying questions and explaining that I can’t take any new work until at least November.

When this shameful chapter in US history is over, I think there needs to be some public recognition of the main actors. How about the Donald J. Trump Sewage Treatment Plant? The Stephen Miller Toxic Waste Dump. Or calling the next pandemic virus The RFK Jr Stupidity Plague. Also: prison sentences.

Just logged on for some distraction. I note a definite lack of champagne emojis. *sigh* He’s still alive, isn’t he? ☹️

i wanna try something. quote this post if you’re a man who hates the manosphere

This year, incidentally, marks 40 years since my first SF convention, Aussiecon II in Melbourne. Tried to organise a couple of friends to go with me, but they both dropped out. I decided to go by myself and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Okay, that’s me fully booked for Conflux! Accommodation was a bit pricey, mind. I guess that’s what I get for vacillating for so long 🤷‍♂️. Still, that’s why God created credit cards. Possibly. Anyway, it’s locked in and I’m looking forward to a new con!

The dangers of in-breeding revealed! Film at 11:00

Every time I see footage of ICE agents dragging innocent people off the street, I’m reminded that “just following orders” didn’t cut it as an excuse at Nuremberg, and I hope it won’t cut it in America when (if!) a Democratic administration takes power. Every single ICE agent should be prosecuted.

🚨 NEW: The Writers Guild of America is demanding an investigation into CBS’s firing of Stephen Colbert—calling out what could be a politically motivated takedown of one of late night’s sharpest voices. Stand with truth. Stand with Colbert. Retweet to show you’re not backing down.

Hey friends, I seek advice on the world of Lego. I’m looking for a light set for a birthday gift and the prices seem to be all over the place – like between $73 and $150 for what looks like the same kit. Can anyone recommend a company please – preferably Australia-based but not a dealbreaker. 🙏

It was always going to come to this. The Trump administration is establishing the Fourth Reich and ICE are its stormtroopers. Assuming there is ever another Democratic president, everyone involved in this, from Trump down to the lowliest ICE agent needs to be prosecuted.

A boxed set of Shelby Foote’s history of the American Civil War for $90? Don’t mind if I do, eBay. Don’t mind if I do. 📚

If I were going to punch an American political party it would probably be the Democrats. The Republicans *deserve* to be punched more, but the Democrats would apologise for getting their nose in the way of my fist, and then give me their wallet to make up for any inconvenience. 1/2

Look, would it be irresponsible of me to suggest that if immigrants to the US were to go around dressed in cargo pants and a tactical vest from an army surplus store, a black baseball cap and one of those pull-up black masks, they could probably just walk right through an ICE ambush?

Well, this gravy perfect sense to me. In fact, voting potato semantic decompile repeat gravy, if I’m not mistaken.

Yes! This! A thousand times this! 👇👇👇

Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, or Marvel.

Yes, go for it Eric. Your potent mix of magnetic personality, razor-sharp intellect and man-of-the-people empathy will make you a shoe-in. I’m not sure where your ability to defraud money from children with cancer will be best deployed but I’m sure you’ll think of something. Parasite.

Some time in the not-too-distant, Mitch McConnell is going to die. When that glorious day arrives, every Democrat who has anything good to say about him should be primaried & every news outlet that runs an obituary without the words ‘Mitch McConnell was a corrupt piece of shit’ should be boycotted.