When we have to rebuild democracy, instead of electing individual candidates, we should apportion seats based on party registration. Parties can conduct their own elections and submit them. Unaffiliated voters can be represented by individuals selected by sortilege. Or all sortilege, that's ok too.

At least we don't live in CHINA

Writing pet peeve: "wants" as a noun (instead of "desires").

"ICE has no regard for any human life." "I've seen ICE agents with fingers on their trigger, using real M16s and M9s, pointing them at people." "They're just trigger happy, and there is no trigger discipline." #Illinois #USA #Incarceration #Deportation #EthnicCleansing

Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, where Congress had not authorized the use of military force.

“Fuck them kids.” That’s literally what an ICE agent said when ICE, the FBI et al. raided an apartment in Chicago, including with a Blackhawk helicopter, separated children from their parents, and zip-tied them to each other. abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

Apple removes ICEBlock, an app for anonymously reporting ICE official sightings, from the App Store; AG Pam Bondi says the DOJ requested its removal (Ashley Oliver/Fox Business) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

I always pay attention to what stories People Magazine and other consumer media outlets cover. That's how you can tell that something has broken through the usual political and news bubbles. This horrific Chicago story has broken through. people.com/ice-agents-o...

When I asked my students to think of a "transformative text" they've encountered in their lives, many in one of my sections said "sheet music," and perhaps not coincidentally that is my probably my strongest section. Fascinating!

Antifascist readings--philosophy, literature, primary sources--for a pre-1800 class. This is a request. What are they?

The "indecisives," those who chose neither good or evil, are not even allowed through the Gates of Hell in Dante's Inferno. They're stuck in the "vestibule", where they must run after a banner and are stung by hornets and wasps while worms and maggots drink their blood and pus.

💀

Were they ICE or were they Patriot Front? Because both like to pile in U-Hauls and I can't see much difference between them thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...

AI sucks so bad especially because when I read a really excellent essay I immediately have to suspect it of being the product of cheating. And effortless cheating at that! They don't even have to pay a grad student to write their paper for them! At least money exchanged hands back in the day.

I think I suffer from bright-kid syndrome, too, but I realized all this in 2016, admittedly in retrospect also late. Klein had the luxury of coming in for a soft landing because he was making Vox and NYT money.

You know what I hate is Bluetooth, and how it doesn't work, and how it can be working all day fine, and then it forgets your devices, or connects to another device it hasn't connected to in weeks, and how you start running around the house looking for all your devices. This sucks. It really sucks.

You know, helicopters crash *all* the time.

I, too, would make sure that all the people who would need to coordinate to halt or reverse my political progress were gathered from across the planet in the same room while I demonstrated why they should probably do that

This is correct. If you heard someone in an assisted-living facility rambling on this way, you'd be talking with the doctors about appropriate next levels of care. No kidding. And every officer in the room has to realize it.

He's bombing so bad maybe he'll just disband the military.

Is he awake?

I can't actually believe this Hegseth speech is being televised?? I thought it would be a behind-closed-doors thing? Like, OBVIOUSLY that's what it should be if it's in person? There is no depth to the stupidity of these people.

Wow, uh...has anyone told him there's a recruitment crisis in the military? Does he think fitness influencers making six figures are going to enlist? Does he know what country he lives in? This is funny stuff.

would love to hear more congressional democrats say "should we win power next year we are going to treat every one of these as bribes and act accordingly" arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Is "humanity" in the room with us right now?

1. A day after the Michigan church shooting, Republicans are silent after learning the shooter was a MAGA extremist. No investigations of Trump supporters as terrorists. No national conversations about the rights of cisgender men. The silence is deafening. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Sharing. Because we need to know. Also because “John Brown Gun Club”.

It should be referred to as a Kavanaugh stop.

I think we are six to nine months out before the fascists actually consolidate the full state apparatus and become quite hard to defeat. Between now and then, the regime could unravel quite quickly, and some push by large numbers against ICE on the streets could play a crucial role.

His apparently canceling the War on Portland is fascinating because along with medbeds, it's proof he simply cannot clock the difference between reality and his own team's agitprop anymore.

But seriously, AM I?

You guys laugh but a lot of my students have the same reaction.

Fucking amateurs. These are not worthy adversaries, dude.

- there's ~38000 ICE officers - at $80,000 a year, that's $3,040,000,000 for ICE salaries - divide the 59,792 in ICE detention by that salary - $50,842 dollars PER ARREST - detaining costs $160 per person per day ($58,400 per year) WE COULD JUST GIVE THEM CITIZENSHIP. racism is expensive.

The oceans just hit an ominous milestone A new report sounds the alarm on ocean acidification as Earth breaches the seventh of nine "planetary boundaries." grist.org/oceans/the-o... #Climate #Oceans #Heat #Seas #Fish #MarineLife #Environment #Water

Unless things have changed since I lived in Chicago, I don't remember there being a Home Depot downtown.

So exhausting..

They're blending right into the awning of that Club Quarters where you can stay for cheap if you're on a quick business trip.

With that camouflage I can barely make them out.

Looking for "illegals" in downtown Chicago on a Sunday. OK.

Targeted attack on a dockside restaurant in North Carolina. Three dead. Suspect a former Marine sniper in Iraq and Haiti who tried to sue the US govt for “genocide against straight men by the LGBQT community.” Flags at half mast? Endless op-eds? Victims’ faces on coins? www.cnn.com/2025/09/28/u...

“In a new report, management consultants Bain & Company found that despite being ‘one of the first areas to deploy generative AI,’ the ‘savings have been unremarkable’ in programming.”

I say again that Philip K. Dick is the author of our moment.

He truly is Chance the Gardener from Being There. www.kgw.com/article/news...

"Wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?" - the President of the United States of America www.kgw.com/article/news...

You can tell I'm supposed to be grading because I'm posting so much.

If we can't rely on other countries to educate our doctors for us, what are we supposed to do? Educate our OWN medical professionals? Make medical school FREE? That's crazy talk!

AI is so very clearly a fascist technology.

Even setting aside ethics (but, yknow, THAT) - I just don’t want AI bullshit. I don’t want an AI pop star, movie, book, video game. Art is a conversation. Why would I stare at a dictionary run through the washing machine when I could read a poem lovingly constructed by someone’s hands?