[guy who can’t fully remember that Gramsci quote] it’s Monster Time

Unions and community orgs are calling for a Minnesota-wide shutdown in 10 days to protest the ferocious assault by federal immigration agents. They're saying on Jan 23, no work, no school, no shopping. SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, & others are supporting, w/ more to join. By me, Amie Stager

crank solutions to social problems (part who knows of an infinite series): whatever privileges and rewards we permit in our society, we must make escaping drudgery impossible.

This is correct as far as it goes. But let's not forget the contribution of the people in positions of authority - bosses, business owners, cops, old-fashioned Christian fathers - who want their boots licked.

how many revolutions until we can say what we mean? at least two more, right?

The EPA is no longer going to consider how many potential lives a pollution regulation would save -- just the costs to industry. This is directly counter to EPA's mission. And it will kill Americans. Great (depressing) scoop from @maxinejoselow.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...

“I have asked the clergy of the diocese to make sure their affairs are in order and they have written their wills, not the time for statements. It is time to put our bodies between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable”. Rob Hirschfeld, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire

-The US sanctions against Iran are specifically designed, by admission of US officials, to cause mass misery and social discontent to the point of instigating protests. This is a well-worn playbook for US regime-change operations.

this is not a party gearing up to even pare back funding, let alone abolish ICE. I cannot stress enough that it'd be cleaner and easier to just get rid of every last one of them via primary than try to figure out which is worth saving

what if they threw a political party without any donors and everybody came?

There’s so much you can do to support communities under attack! People need groceries, help running errands and keeping their kids safe, financial support… Protestors and rapid responders can use funds, supplies (winter gear, power banks), trainings… Legal orgs need funds, staffing…

This is so real, they tried it this morning in Bloomington. They stopped a man, people started honking horns, they split up to fuck with everyone else, which brought more attention and more noise, people got out of their cars and started filming, they left. They're cowards.

The cops run every municipality in the US.

the rare inverted theweleit

maybe, per LL Cool J, in the game "man made the money, money never made the man", but in political philosophy: the longue durée conditioned the society determined the population formed the class organized the institution selected the sovereign decided the exception.

by the end of the story Ebenezer wasn't a Scrooge, and one imagines "the Grinch" is an exonym. (more in the proceedings of the frankenstein is not the monster society)

gender is as much about emphasis as typology. "men do 'being human' like this, women do 'being human' like that"

I was going to post "you never see science fiction when the science is linguistics" before remembering Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra, so I posted this instead

culture industry malforms us by corroding faith in artists, which is a trust foundational to and nearly necessary for excellent aesthetic experience.

"The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow." — William Blake, 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' bsky.app/profile/good...

crybullies don a veil of tears

"What we need is a State training school for bad readers—readers who, lacking the habit of analysis, lack also the faculty of discrimination, and take whatever is put before them, with the broad, blind catholicity of a slop-fed conscience or a parlor pig." — comrade Ambrose Bierce

headcanon: 'The Ox-Bow Incident' is a prequel to "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", chronology be damned

o, debauchery of debaucheries! here I—a man dissipated, gorged on indulgence—stand with head hung, fork in hand [purple penance for eating curry twice in one day]

timbreland

peace, love, and understanding *crowd laughter*

Human brains feed off of negativity. Negative thoughts are easily digested and play in a loop in your mind all of the time. The reality, however, is that there is also A LOT OF GOOD happening every single minute. You have to do more work to pay attention to the good but it's worth it.

Zizek-adjacent theory folks, et al., were all about Lacan's big Other in the mid-00s. doesn't it seem like that concept deserves a big ol' renaissance in the social media age? then again Baudrillard was ahead of his time by about a decade. what a fate, what a time, what a world

who called it a ship's christening and not its berthday?

starting a new access journalism gossip rag called The Privy. when Nature calls, we get her on the record. who will join my movement?

whatever its metaphysical attributions, "soul" names the particle within us that gives us social inertia, i.e. the willingness to not belong, not follow, not agree, etc. no decent religion/philosophy endorses the path of least resistance. soul is our weightiness in the communal stream.

The point isn’t that reading and literacy are individual problems, it’s that there’s a clear ideological project to end education and literacy in the US and it’s working. And part of that, intentional or otherwise, has been the hours people spend passively consuming content on the internet.

The speed and manner with which Trump's campaign to expel all LatAm immigrants from the US became a claim of US sovereignty over the entire region shows that the problem was one of status, not presence. Trump II has no problem with a two-tier caste system, whether inside or outside US borders.

Utah commissioned it's department of health to do a systematic review of gender affirming care for trans youth. In a 1000 page plus report found it was beneficial and the evidence was substantial. The lawmakers rejected it anyways. www.deseret.com/politics/202...

Honestly he should just have refused to plead. Why even acknowledge this show trial bsky.app/profile/jrus...

The 2026 ABA Bird of the Year is the Horned Lark! Get ready for a great year of celebrating Horned Larks! www.aba.org/the-2026-aba...

your children don't understand "bee in your bonnet" because what's a "bonnet"? their grandchildren won't understand because what's a "bee"?

american "liberal democracy" cannot function under extreme partisanship, but the latter is unavoidable when the ruling class cannot manage its fears of ideological competition, demographic diversity, and a realistic possibility of systems transformation and collapse. bsky.app/profile/jame...

a category of rhetoric that is opposed to Frankfurt's "bullshit"—neither honesty nor lying, but indifference to the truth in furtherance of other goals—is what I will dub "mere honesty" (in lieu of a cleverer name): speaking honestly without caring to persuade, discourse for truth but not belief.

beyond (before? behind?) "left" and "right" politics: let us displace "desire" as the organizing principle of life and "choice" as the organizing principle of politics. starting from the top down, naturally. honest-to-goodness marriage of protestantism & Mao. (so, promethean leftist fantasy. yes)

In a study following 23 million people age 18-59 (pretty young) for 4 years…despite the fact that the ones who got the COVID vaccine were overall older and sicker at baseline, they not only had 74% lower risk of dying from COVID than the unvaccinated but 25% lower risk of dying from any other cause!

do teachers tell kids not to put their real name or face on the internet anymore? (it's still good advice, even if it means you won't fit in (like "don't smoke", etc.))

The last time there was significant rebellion in the US military (desertions, fragging, etc) was in the waning days of the draft, by people who didn't choose to be there. The modern volunteer military are just like any cops, prison guards or ICE thugs - racist murder as a career

'Odd Man Out', my first movie of 2026, was excellent. noir on the emerald isle. less sentimental though no less romantic, it would pair nicely with 'It's A Wonderful Life', I think.

vindicated! when I use uber (vs local taxi company), I never tip on the app, I always tip in cash. who knows if this is fake, I would guess that it might be, but maybe not (search for "Tip Theft 2.0"): old.reddit.com/r/confession...

I think I understand why restaurants sometimes close abruptly (i.e. no warning given to employees, who arrive in the morning to locked doors, etc). but why only restaurants? I've never heard of a clothing boutique or furniture store or movie theater or gas station or bank (et al.) doing the same.

for all the calendar/holiday heads out there: Valentine's Day, July 4th, and Halloween are all on Saturdays in 2026. Christmas is a Friday and New Year's Eve a Thursday, which is perfect for my work schedule, but your mileage may vary

"grace" is the virtue that, among other (more important) things, includes the ability to recognize and acknowledge one's powerlessness, and the willingness to live as well as one can (considering said powerlessness). be graceful, be deluded, or die: life is full of possibilities.

any international event hosted in the US should be treated like Israel-including Eurovision - don't watch it, don't participate, don't acknowledge. make the US a pariah. not specifically for this but this is good a spur to action as any