Annual pre-7/4 reminder that though the 1812 Overture is a banger both literally and "as the kids say", it is about the Russians fighting off the French and its "traditional" use in American patriotic celebrations ultimately tracks to a (rather bombastic) 1974 Boston Pops concert.

On Fresh Air yesterday, Isaac Butler made the point that, while people on the left who indulge in suppression of art and speech they don't like deserve to be called out for being dumb and cringe, there is simply no left-wing equivalent to the deeply malevolent way the right wields culture war power.

Why have only 15 women been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame despite decades of history? A closer look at the selection process reveals the reasons—and why creating a dedicated women’s committee could finally change that. ✍️ @patlaprade.bsky.social thehockeynews.com/womens/other...

NEW: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.

breaking:

I've got centrist Dems in all my networks wetting their pants about DSA, party rifts, and Israel... and I'm constantly like "Maybe coming out strong against the fucking Gestapo and getting rid of it is really just a thing voters are interested in?"

if he didn't mean it exactly the way it was received it would take all of 20 seconds to stand in front of a mic and say so

This is correct. It went from a "crazy idea" that the various Law Knowers said was obviously stupid, to a nearly-there cause that can be won if Rs get to replace Sotomayor. And in the meantime, Rs who were otherwise happy w Trump on immigration have new demands to stop "birth tourism."

almost forgot about this absolute monstrosity I saw at the London Drugs register today

They want to convince their followers that we are un-American, in the wrong country. But it’s them. THEY are in the wrong country. Their goals, plans, ideology are no less than an insurrection against the Second Founding - the constitutional framework for our country created after the Civil War.

Being willing to stand up against the machines of genocide and global destruction is not only the moral positon, it is the winning one.

Had to dig up a hard copy for this one.

Very little can deter the dedicated New England lawn seating concertgoer

This is a big deal. The Trump Admin demanded New Hampshire's entire voter rolls, our (Republican) AG said absolutely not, went to court to defend the state's power over elections, and won.

End of an era at The New Yorker, where Alex's writing has been the defining music criticism of this century so far

Resist the fandomification of politics. Stop having faves.

With Elon Musk becoming our first trillionaire, I talked to American users of the rapidly growing “Almost Homeless” subreddit, who are struggling to stay housed amid a brutal job market and with social services slashed to the bone. They say this online community is crucial to their mental stability.

The dejected guy in the second photo is sitting in front of a sign for Mutt’s Sauce. What is that? Oh, I see, it’s some sort of McKinsey condiment. A business sauce.

I think there's a microgenerational gap between older Millennials/young Gen-X and younger Millennials/Gen-Z on this - being old enough to understand the Matthew Shepard attack, not knowing any out gay adults, not having many queer kids at school - and worse if you grew up in an exurb/rural vs urban.

TMZ DC with perhaps the most brutal video from Trump's Great American State Fair, showing Dr. Oz on stage bragging to Dean Cain about how big the crowd is, only for the reporter to pan around and show absolutely nobody is there. Original post: x.com/i/status/207...

Absolutely loving the right calling every sensible policy that people love "radical socialism." Please don't stop. I promise you we are feeling owned.

The Minnesota State Fair has more people than this standing around watching the crop artists bring their little pictures in six days before the fair opens.

I am not a perfect boss, but I have never been more confident about anything than I am about my unwavering opposition to allowing AI any role whatsoever in our organization.

The rearview camera on my car got stuck on while I was driving forward, and my life was briefly a video game

i cannot stress enough how much this man should not be the democratic presidential nominee

This is a truly wild amount of replying to do to one guy saying "hey, I wish people on here wouldn't talk about religion like there's only one kind of religious person."

I have real concerns about how moderate Craig will vote in a seat held by progressives for almost two decades, but we should fear putting someone at the top of the ticket with demonstrated animosity towards other statewide candidates. Will she deliver votes to reelect our AG? Do her supporters care?

Ruling against TPS for Haitians, the Trump justices on the Supreme Court have set a new impossible standard for proving discrimination against non-whites: if there is any other reason *in addition* to the racism, the racism doesn’t count www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

One of my biggest annoyances with the way people on this site talk about religion is the knee-jerk, uninformed conflation of "Christianity" with a very specific and primarily American cult of evangelical fundamentalism.

You do not have to reach for cultural explanations for the lack of AC in Europe. It didn't used to be hot and now it is hot!

I don’t know why, if it’s lack of staffing or increased vetting, but crossing back into Vermont from Quebec on hw89 has been ridiculously gummed up for months, plus the nexus lane is closed. What is normally an easy trip now contains a detour to one of the small backroad crossings, if its open.

First of five summer workshop sessions in the books. You can tell it was good because I've barely posted for the last two weeks.

We love to see it

anecdotally, I'm seeing a lot of fandom friends get comments on their fics that are like "I don't like X, Y, Z about this fic", often relating to more complicated characterizations or stylistic choices. the customer-servicey let-me-speak-to-your-manager approach to art really troubles me.

Remember this picture, & others like it, every time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam." This was #Amsterdam in the 1970s. Many of the cities we admire made tough choices regarding cars in the past, and are still making better choices today. Better choices instead of excuses.

I'm not really sure how the first gay person to mount a serious run for President could have "expressed their queerness" more "boldly and proudly" than regularly showing off the man he was married to and kissing him on stage in public, there's really nothing more queer than queer love.

The arm on NBA star Kelsey Plum, who throws a rolled-up jersey to her dad sitting in the upper bleachers. www.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUn...

I now fervently believe this. Relatedly, I think celebrating good news and embracing joy are equally radical. You have to remember what you’re fighting for. We cannot sustainably organize around sorrow.

I’m not thrilled that apparently the secret to success in basically every field right now is “be really good at short form video”

No notes.

my kind of Jubilee, the Japanese national team vs. 100 kids

A data-driven analysis of how the New York Times's treatment of transgender subjects shifted "from rights-based framing toward more skeptical, conflict-driven coverage" since 2014, centering trans-rights opponents over trans people themselves. www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

“I run the protection program” is a very wild quote.

Russell Vought is an evil man. This plan is nothing short of a personal take-over of federal grant making. It will affect ALL of us. Political commissars will now be in charge of all agencies, reporting to him. But we are not powerless. See what you can do below. 1/ www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Kids Stuffed In Lockers Every Day For Last 10 Years Plot Counterattack

I know this is not the biggest concern going these days, but it stresses me out that basically every artist/writer/critic is now expected to create their own tiny empire instead of getting paid by any existing entity to perform a job they've worked to get good at!!!!

Compare Mamdani to Massie, for example. Mamdani has made much more of an effort to connect with Jewish voters & turn off antisemites. Meanwhile Massie all but embraces antisemitic voters but he gets only a fraction of the approbation Mamdani does

That time again