Honestly when you think of a dissertation as an end in itself rather than a career prerequisite, it's really cool and fun. Of course it's also stressful and hard, but what *isn't* stressful in the year of our lord are 2026?

I thought everyone who told me "you end up writing half the dissertation in the last month" was joking, but I'm delighted that they weren't! In the last push, and it's a joy (lol) to just sit down and write nonstop about something I know and care so much about, now with a clear end in sight.

I'm going to do a thread of all the references and context behind Bad Bunny's performance and what it means for Puerto Ricans to see this on the biggest stage. The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts. Follow along!

7/ Read the rest of the letters:

every few weeks i remember that time Microsoft ran a "radical joy" pride campaign and want to throw my entire dissertation into the sun lol

Any decentralised horizontal egalitarian group is a demonstration of anarchism in practice. Any friend group chipping together or a stranger giving mutual aid. Whether bread, eyewash or a couch to sleep on. We don't need to work at a national scale to start making a difference.

Just sprinted to 3 pharmacies to get Naloxone in a life-and-death emergency bc I figured "no need to bring a bag, I'm just getting coffee." This is an unsolicited public reminder (to myself) that if you live in East Van, your leaving the house routine should include Naloxone.

America is outraged after ICE killed two white people in Minneapolis. I understand why folks are feeling afraid and angry right now. But I need you to understand something just as clearly: this is what Black America has been living with for generations. open.substack.com/pub/cwebbstu...

Hot, searing damnation.

oh it's going to be a Recession recession

Are you a Frozen Pickle or a Bathtub Viking?

NEW — Today, after years of raising awareness about the Clean Slate Act, dozens of Clean Slate Illinois Coalition members packed XS Tennis and Education Foundation’s headquarters in Washington Park to witness Gov. JB Pritzker sign the Clean Slate Act into law. thetriibe.com/2026/01/gov-...

Just found this collage from last January in a random folder, I think all content from the NY Times. Trying to talk myself out of doing this exercise again this January....

You need to be willing to plant trees knowing you will never sit in their shade

We've removed the paywall from this guide so everyone can access it. 👇 Stay safe.

When everything feels awful, I re-read the closing pages of Lou Sullivan's diaries and think about how, even in his final days, as he and so many around him were dying of AIDS, he was organizing and writing and laughing with friends and having "FUN!" That's what I mean by a politics of trans joy.

CBC doesn't have this on the news homepage or even the political news homepage, which is *fascinating* because I would argue that using the notwithstanding clause 3 times IN ONE NIGHT is, in fact, major political news.

Alberta just passed bills banning trans girls from youth sports, restricting gender-affirming care including hormone blockers for youth under 16 y/o, and requiring parental consent for students to change their name/pronouns at school. They used the notwithstanding clause on all three bills. 🧵1/6

The worst thing about being a good facilitator is that I just pulled off the most perfect interrupt-validate-redirect maneuver, but the recipient will never notice, which is what made it perfect.

They found a way to make the J6 Pipe bomber trans.

Immigrating to Canada is wild, because they ignore you for a year, then one day they're like "you must get a medical exam, send us more money, and get your relatives' birth certificates to us within the next 30 days, or you're back to square one."

Excited to share this wonderful conversation I had with Manda Aufochs Gillespie for Cortes Island's Folk University! We discuss zine culture, trans joy, underground networks, and the power of creative defiance. soundcloud.com/the-ecorepor...

Excited to share this wonderful conversation I had with Manda Aufochs Gillespie for Cortes Island's Folk University! We discuss zine culture, trans joy, underground networks, and the power of creative defiance. soundcloud.com/the-ecorepor...

I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.

Made a lumb(e/a)r pillow and brought it to the woods to meet its brethren

The same week we lost a sister to anti-trans policies, were blamed by the government for 42m people losing SNAP, were told we should be abandoned by centrists yet again, & Trump declared Congress null & signaled he'll never leave office, the regime seeks to torture & kill every trans kid in America.

Grading essays on "intersectionality" be like

Timeline is very bleak this am, so here's Tiana's reaction upon receiving a decrepit reusable shopping bag.

honestly the only piece worth reading on the platner situation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is absolutely cooking here. (gift link)

I wrote an article about zines and AI that was published online and in @lookoutnews.bsky.social zine that we design and print! Check it out! www.lookoutnews.org/in-the-face-...

⚠️ Many state government lists don't provide a comprehensive list of all available sources. Find one near you.❤️ 👇🏻 Food Pantries, Soup Kitchens, and Food Banks www.foodpantries.org

Is there already a word for feeling seen/ trusting that someone sees you without explicit affirmation? Not recognition in the sense of being recognized as X, but recognition in the sense of "I know that you know the vibe, so now we can hang without worrying about performing [gender, etc.]"

this headline hums with ancient autumnal dread

when trans people take HRT to feel normal: “look at these depraved sex freaks performing their sick fetish in public, we should bully them out of existence” when cis ppl take HRT so they can fuck real good:

The palpable relief of reading a syntactically awkward student paper nevertheless brimming with ideas they’re trying on after having to consume the stale cardboard generalities of a Chat GPT essay.

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion. As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

this is what life should be about. the other horse shit shouldn't be happening.

After ICE agents violently detained a man in Maryland, they kept him pinned to the ground for nine minutes. He shouts “I live in America! I love America!” When a witness asks why the man was arrested, the officer shouts “Because he’s a criminal.” Full story: www.thehandbasket.co/p/ice-agents...

Happy Bright Eyes release day to all who celebrate 🎉 anyway, back to looping this EP and thinking abt this fucked up world for the next [redacted] days

KIND branding *calories* broke something deep in my psyche this month

I know it seems laughable to blame trans people for a government shutdown, but it is also deeply worrying how the administration is making every negative thing the fault of trans people. We’ve seen what happens when a small minority becomes the scapegoat of a whole society: a lot of people die.

"This slide from political grievance into a nihilistic rage is a critical symptom of a society in the grip of a leaden age. It signals a shift beyond targeted political acts to a broader contempt for society itself, a desire not just to win a political battle, but to watch the entire system burn."

More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Bringing back some out of context snippets while I Power Through the final two transcripts of the whole ding dang dissertation! First up, in conversation with S, a nonbinary Arab person on their experience of Arab vs Western womanhood:

They consider being trans to be a disorder, so anything that facilitates the survival of persistently trans people is also bad to them.

Pro tip: if you want to impress your trans gf, a political assassination that gets the regime frothing at the mouth to eradicate trans people as a class is a horrible way to do it.

be trans, be crime

A Black man and a homeless man were found hanging from trees in Mississippi yesterday, for those who haven’t seen yet because it’s barely made it out of local news.