winterswords
@chriswinters.bsky.social
🇺🇦 🇬🇱 🇩🇰 🇻🇪 Writer of fiction, player of guitars, teacher of culture and history, servant of cats, dweller of Seattle. Nerd of Many Subjects. Real human being. I mute trolls and block abusers. I use em-dashes and semicolons. I am not on Elmo's 12chan.
Chuck Wendig says it better than I do. Using an LLM in writing is not writing, and in fact is antithetical to actual writing.
Chuck Wendig@chuckwendig.bsky.social · 4h agoProfessional writer organizations should not send out pro-AI propaganda in the form of tantrum-having "essays" to their members, and I don't think that's controversial.
Susan comes out against Todd Blanche now that he's got the votes. So tiresome. (We called it: tinyurl.com/3bepafkz) #MEpolitics
The founders are calling. They suggest you read the damn Constitution.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterdayCornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"
"elements of a deal"? And what's to stop Trump from turning around and creating the traitors' slush fund again once Blanche is past the post *as he promised to do?* Tillis and Cornyn must not care about their legacies all that much. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...
Blanche Gives G.O.P. Senators Written Assurances on Trump’s I.R.S. Deal
Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general has been held up over concerns about a planned $1.8 billion fund for Trump allies and the president’s immunity from tax scrutiny.
nytimes.com
Holy crap. Level 3 (GO NOW!) zone now includes urban Spokane, south of Francis to Wellesley. Level 2 (GET SET!) zone now extends east of Division. Not to be alarmist, but at this rate, it’s not inconceivable that the Old Trails Fire merges with the Fairview Fire.
The answer to the question posed by the headline does not come until paragraph 15. (It's to avoid a special election ahead of the general election.) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...
Why Mitch McConnell Isn’t Giving Up His Senate Seat
Democrats are demanding that the Kentucky Republican resign. Others who were sidelined for far longer faced no such calls, but times are changing.
nytimes.com
The one question I, or anyone paying attention, would have in this story is: Was there a call from Moscow after the initial promise? There's no sign the question was asked or answered (or not). www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...
Trump Backs Away From Deal to Let Ukraine Build Patriot Missiles
The president of Ukraine had warned that the country was running out of Patriot interceptors, the most reliable weapon it has to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles.
nytimes.com
While you were over here trying to figure out how you were going to cover the rent and food—this guy was over there using $5.1 million in taxpayer money YOU paid into the system to cover these statues in 23 karat gold. Yeah, he did that.
Todd Blanche quite obviously lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he told them this was dead. It was never dead. It was just on hold until he was confirmed.
Are you saying the DOJ withdrew that pool vandalism indictment… upon reflection?
I can still smell the binding of the 1977 edition.
S. Kramer@libraryephemera.bsky.social · 6d agoWere you a child who read The World Book Encyclopedia for fun?
Make Bribery Illegal Again
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 6d agoFour-byline alert: 🚨 “.. no sitting American president has ever raised these amounts for his pet projects. .. Trump has been demanding large checks .. telling executives and lobbyists that their companies should give $25 million or $50 million.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
The Republicans have wanted to kill Medicare since it was first implemented, but have never gotten over the fact that Medicare is probably the *most popular* (or second-most, after SS) government program in the country. Now they're going to really try to kill it, because Trump's an idiot.
Miranda Yaver@mirandayaver.bsky.social · 6d agoOn Tuesday, the Trump Admin announced they were ending the Medicare Part D subsidy program. Touching the third rail of politics is a heckuva strategy going into midterms (part D open enrollment starts 10/15). My latest analysis for @msnowreports.bsky.social. www.ms.now/opinion/trum...
Let me tell you, having chronicled Pentagon-style war game on attacking Iran nearly 25 yr ago, every single "surprise," "darkening turn," "narrowing option," spreading warfare," "rising casualties," "no easy exit," etc that comes drip-by-drip is EXACTLY why GHWB WJC GWB OBAMA BiDEN did NOT do this
Once again: If you back candidates who look good to you on paper but don't turn out to be all that appealing to voters, it's not the lefties who are ruining everything. You're the one who screwed up. www.notus.org/2026-electio...
Centrist Democrats Are Staring Down Disaster in a Michigan Swing District
Two establishment-friendly Democrats are battling it out in Lansing. Unfortunately for them, they’re not alone in the race.
notus.org
Seeing as how the older of my grandfathers would have been 16 a century ago, being in high school would be the answer, although he might have joined the Marines by then. He was a few years away from becoming a firefighter.
Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 7d agoEnough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?
All the Fauci stuff is a modern day version of the POW/MIA stuff after Vietnam - a way to try to rewrite the history of a huge failure of conservative ideology to be instead a story about how liberals and foreigners stabbed us in the back.
AI opt-in pleas are the door-to-door salesmen of this generation. I can't say "No, and stop asking me!" enough.
This is morally monstrous behavior. These are ordinary, innocent people that Trump is condemning to suffering & death out of political vindictiveness. Every decent human being, regardless of political party, should condemn it. Where is the fucking *anger*? From the press? From civic leaders? Pols?
FEMA said yes to Democratic disaster requests. Trump killed them anyway.
President Donald Trump cast aside bipartisan precedent when he rejected eligible disaster requests from four blue states.
eenews.net
“‘AI company destroys two million books’ is not a headline that generates sympathy.” Ya think?
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.
Trump traded GEO Group and CoreCivic stocks, two private prison corporations, nearly 30 times in 2025. GEO Group’s profits increased by 700% that year and CoreCivic raked in $650 million in ICE contracts — both benefiting Trump’s stock portfolio. Cashing in on his own cruelty.
Post a perfect album from the 90s.
Noah Berlatsky@nberlat.bsky.social · last wk.Post a perfect album from the 90s.
Today's installment of "impeachable offense in any other administration" is brought to you by the Trump voters about to learn that a politicized civil service will not improve their lives, and in fact is only respondent to whoever pays the biggest bribe. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him
Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.
nytimes.com
Failure to comply is not grounds for a death sentence in any court in the U.S.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2w agoHoman on people getting killed by ICE: "It comes down to one simple fact -- these people failed to comply with law enforcement ... all they had to do is comply. If they did, they'd be alive today."
Accountability isn't optional in a democracy. The FBI has just issued a license to kill to Trump's goons who can now murder whoever they want with no consequence. Our constitutional right and freedoms under assault by the very people sworn to uphold and protect them.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2w agoBreaking News: Federal agents are said to have been told that the FBI will no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents. If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents.
The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.
