HOTEL MAYFLOWER reading in Innsbruck at Literaturhaus am Inn last night. First time auf Deutsch! www.richardbyrneplays.com/hotel-mayflo...

Ezra Klein is the dude with the shovel in a hole who should stop digging. Then he texted Ta-Nehisi Coates and said: "Hey can you tell me it's ok to keep digging?" And Coates says repeatedly: "Stop digging."

AI is garbage, Chapter 24,251

When the interviewer speaks as much - or more - than the interview subject, then you know they're in trouble.

Pekara Inn, Innsbruck. Coffee and tiny slice of cheese burek.

INNSBRUCK: Heute Abend. 1900 uhr. Literaturhaus am Inn Szenische Lesung, HOTEL MAYFLOWER www.literaturhaus-am-inn.at/nahaufnahme-...

Ingolstadt. A visit to the Marieluise Fleisser Haus - and a statue placed in front of a tobacco shop where she worked after her initial fame. She hated it. Her husband promised her that she wouldn't have to work at his shop if she married him, then he broke his word. Brutal but she survived it.

Oktoberfest in München isn't just beer and rides. It's an actual 100% historical flea circus with real fleas, and a ride on a 100 year old ferris wheel.

Go light on the Kissinger part.

A great moment for a Congressional recess. Great.

Trump criticizes Pam Bondi for not charging his adversaries quickly enough, in a Truth Social post that looks a lot like a DM. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

"You say you came to Baltimore from Old Miss...." www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYnQ...

The idea that the combined MMR is dangerous but separately the vaccines are fine was created out of whole cloth by Andrew Wakefield, a disgraced former doctor who had a patent on a non-combined version of the MMR. We've known his research was bunk for almost 30 years.

The media allowing Trump plausible deniability on Project 2025 during the campaign is right up there with Iraq War stenography in craven, lazy disgracefulness

Media - and social media - is a supply problem with a demand solution. Stop watching. Log off. Your time/attention is the currency. Take sports. One can listen on local radio. Go watch high school or minor league game. At worst, watch at a bar and support a local business. It can be done.

Henry Farrell (@himself.bsky.social) today: "Remember Hume’s phrase about the 'presumed opinion of others.' Our presumptions about what other people think can play an extraordinarily powerful role in shaping how we ourselves think, and what we are prepared to do." substack.com/@henryfarrel...

"A 'no' that sticks must be cultivated. Built upon a foundation of habit. We must make a commitment to say 'no' with consistency to the vast number of requests for our assent to things that we can neither endorse nor endure." www.richardbyrneplays.com/post/the-pow...

"'What is truth?’ asked Pontius Pilate of the condemned man. Thousands of men formed by the intellectual disciplines of scientific thought – it seems – reply in fact: ‘It is the command of the Leader of my party.’ This is the death of intelligence, the death of ethics." -- Victor Serge

If you take what a 9-0 Court said in Vullo seriously, it seems clear to me that Kimmel has not just a plausible jawboning claim but a strong one on the basis of Carr's threats. (Always read Genevieve Lakier 👇)

Watching a moral self-immolation in slow motion.

Judge Katsas: “The President removed Lisa Cook her position as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System based on apparent misrepresentations Cook had made in applying for home mortgages…” Me: *taps sign* MORTGAGE APPLICATIONS AND MORTGAGE AGREEMENTS ARE NOT THE SAME THING

The anti-vaccine movement is a pseudoscientific assault on public health.

Klein is the man with the shovel who finds himself in a ditch and won't stop digging, sir. Damnedest thing.

Left XTwitter when Musk said he *might* buy it. Moved from Substack to Ghost. Froze Meta. Drastic Google footprint reduction. Sure, there should be a mass migration away from these platforms. But I felt compelled to move as a human. I welcome you to join me. stage-write.ghost.io/why-move-sta...

battle doomscrolling by posting five small pleasures in life: 1. Kajmak on any bread. 2. Victor Serge's poetry 3. Dur Dur Band 4. Watching a moonflower blossom 5. Opening an envelope with a rare book you ordered

Declaration of Independence quote of the day: "He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."

Elon Musk has shared an obviously AI-generated image of the Unite the Kingdom rally in London. The first AI error is that the Arc de Triomphe is in Paris, not London. And once you zoom in, you'll notice that the Union Jacks and the crowd have other errors typical of AI images.

I'm old enough to remember when the president thought there were good people on both sides.

Literally bonkers that US and European politicians committed to democracy remain on Twitter.

"Faust asks Mephistopheles for jewels to woo Gretchen. But Faust could win Gretchen without them. Why does Faust need Mephistopheles?" Watch THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min) - a film about art and complicity with evil in the Nazi film industry. FREE on Vimeo until tomorrow night. vimeo.com/891988721

Twitter, Fox News, Meta: They are all supply problems with a demand solution. Log off. Switch off.

"What do I remember about 1940? We were happy. Despite everything. Who thought Germany could ever lose the war in nineteen forty?" FINAL TWO DAYS. Watch THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min). Art, memory, and complicity with evil in the Nazi film industry. FREE on Vimeo until Sunday. vimeo.com/891988721

This is unspeakable ... and yet was spoken on US airwaves.

"What do I remember about 1940? We were happy. Despite everything. Who thought Germany could ever lose the war in nineteen forty?" FINAL TWO DAYS. Watch THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min). Art, memory, and complicity with evil in the Nazi film industry. FREE on Vimeo until Sunday. vimeo.com/891988721

Incredible. Trump drags the reputation of a highly regarded economist, first Black woman to be a Fed gov, thru the mud claiming she committed mortgage fraud. But the documents his appointee to run Fannie & Freddie got for him & that he said showed fraud don’t actually say that.

"Yes, yes. 'People arise! Storm break loose!' These are words in the film. But I did not say them. (Pause.) Yes. Goebbels said these same things at the Sportspalast." THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min). Art and complicity in the Nazi film industry. FREE on Vimeo until Sunday 9/14. vimeo.com/891988721

FDR.

FINAL WEEKEND! Can making a film be a crime? What responsibility do artists bear for the hateful message of a work? Watch THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min) - a film about art and complicity with evil in the Nazi film industry - for FREE on Vimeo until Sunday. vimeo.com/891988721 Trailer below!

"Yes, yes. 'People arise! Storm break loose!' These are words in the film. But I did not say them. (Pause.) Yes. Goebbels said these same things at the Sportspalast." THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min). Art and complicity in the Nazi film industry. FREE on Vimeo until Sunday 9/14. vimeo.com/891988721

Watching the cable news commentary on the bullet engravings is wild because none of these people seem to realize that the content of the engravings are indicative of extremely online meme brain rot

"Some of dem say me have ability ..." Friday music: Sister Nancy, "Only Woman DJ with Degree" www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNbH...

The Stop the Steal flag is flying at half mast outside the Alito home today

"You must think it’s nice to be a movie star. But if this ever happens to you, watch out! Perfectly normal people become beasts. They’ll eat you up for supper, like wolves in a fairy tale." THE DROWNED GIRL (70 min). Art, complicity, and memory. FREE on Vimeo until September 14 vimeo.com/891988721

Seriously?

Fightins battle back again....